


Si Cela Est Noël

by AnniKay



Series: French Lessons [6]
Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-15 02:17:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 70,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4589265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnniKay/pseuds/AnniKay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Winter Break for the College Freshmen of the Learning French Series. As for most brand new college students, this is their first real opportunity to check in with the New Directions and their families back home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Oh Christmas Tree & Miracle

**Author's Note:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Even with the finale, they couldn’t give us a real good ending for Mercedes, Rachel got married and a Tony…but they alluded to Mercy’s world tour, but they said nothing about a Grammy or a love interest for Cedes. RIB and his writers can still each collectively and individually kiss my big black ass. SamCedes is EndGame. If they can’t see that then they need new, not stupid, eyes.  
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories

Oh Christmas Tree (Nat King Cole)  
Mike PoV

My first semester of college had flown by. I was working so hard there was barely time to breathe. My regular classes were going well and I had mid to high As in all of them but I was really excelling in my dance classes. In the rehearsal rooms is where I really came alive, where I felt completely free. I was also extremely proud of my fellow students, not just the ones I knew, but all of them the whole campus over. I had told Nevel that I was friends with Puck, Mercedes, and Sam, but I hadn’t been very concerned about when and where we were when I was telling him about their album and the movie and the soundtrack, so the news spread around campus like wildfire. Before I knew it, some frat guy I’d never even seen before was inviting me to his frat’s party and trying to get me to pledge. It seemed like everywhere I turned, someone else was asking me all about my famous friends. 

Since everyone everywhere seemed to suddenly know me, when Rachel…yeah I was so shocked to hear that it was Berry who’d dimed out Commune, that was really sarcastic; I should try not to get so sarcastic and snarky when I think about Rachel but she is just too irritating not to go there immediately…released the cute little video of the three way proposal, the whole campus basically turned and looked at me for my reaction. When I just laughed and commented on how happy I was for them, they took it as their mantra. So when Fox News started all their bullshit, it was like the whole Stanford campus and Tina’s whole campus over at Berkeley roared in anger. We belonged to them and Puck, Cedes, and Sam, they belonged to us. The Twittersphere blew up. None of ‘our people’ were going to let a whole bunch of ‘conserva-tards’ harass our friends.  
Since exam week ended on December twentieth, we spent Friday evening in San Francisco seeing ‘SongBird’ with the Tanners, Katsopolis, Gladstone, and Gibblers, I’d even dragged Nevel with us. He was flying out at ten that night anyway; it was no big deal to leave campus with enough time to catch an almost matinee showing before taking him to the airport. It was a strange and awesome thing to look up at the big screen and see someone that you knew. Someone that you didn’t just know, but that you knew well enough to know that she had a mole perfectly placed equidistant between her shoulder blades. To look up at the club scene and see two of your closest friends and know that they loved to press their lips against the movie’s supporting actress’ mole as often as they reasonably could. It was really very awesome to watch the entire theater of people fall as deeply in love with her voice as we all did three years before when she really let go and sang for us for the first time.

As I listened to DJ, her boyfriend and her bestie as they raved about Mercedes’ performance I was filled with pride and happiness for my friend, my girlfriend’s bestie, hell the girlfriend of two of my best friends. I couldn’t help but think back to the surprising Skype conversation I’d had earlier that evening. Sam and Puck had found it necessary to get me to translate all the dance terms the choreographer for KAMA’s first two videos was throwing at them. Though, to be honest, they actually already knew a wide variety of the moves, they just knew them by Brittany’s rather colorful names for them rather than their real designations. By the end of the call arrangements had been made for me, Puck and Sam to get together with Marko, the choreographer, on the Thursday before the rest of the video people got to Lima so that they could leant the stylized fight before filming. Marko mentioned payment for my time but the truth was I was way more interested in the experience than the money. 

As we were getting ready to take our leave, Mr. Tanner pulled Tina and I to the side and asked if we could tell him in advance if Mercedes and or her guys came to visit so he could try to get them on his and Rebecca’s morning show. We both agreed to do so and I knew that Mercedes wouldn’t have a problem with doing his show. She had chatted with DJ over Tina’s shoulder enough times that Tina was worried her roommate was gonna steal her best friend. As for my roommate…Nevel was enraptured by her voice. He went on and on about it as we drove him to the airport. By the time we got to passenger drop off, he’d already convinced Carly, Sam and Freddie to send all their fans to see it too. Tina started to point out that our Sam and their Sam were cousins so they probably already were hyping the movie up, but I convinced her to keep quiet…might as well let him have his moment. 

After dropping Nevel off, we headed back to Tina’s dorm and loaded my car with her stuff, then spent the night in my dorm room. Even though it was pretty rare for us to have time in my room, rather than Tee’s, we’d mastered the art of making love on the dorm sized twin bed. I had to say it was due to the twin bed predicament that we’d discovered what had quickly become my favorite position of all time. Both of us sitting up, facing each other, Tina’s slick, tight heat enveloping my dick as we kissed and grinded against each other, barely moving until it all became too much and she would start riding me hard, my hips snapping up to meet her every downward slide. In that position we could kiss to our hearts’ delight, my hands could squeeze and grope her ass or my lips could tease and suck her nipples. But best of all her clit and her g-spot were stimulated with each and every stroke. Her orgasms in that position were almost deafening and she’d clench so tightly around me I could usually only give her two before I had no choice but to join her on her third. 

Tina and I took the same route back at Christmas that we’d taken to get to California in the first place. We left the Stanford really early Saturday morning. Tina and I had planned everything out. We gotten a ton of healthy snacks and drinks to take in the car with us, which would lessen the need for stops. We mapped the course out, deciding to drive through to Cheyenne rather than stopping in Salt Lake City. The map said the drive was a sixteen and a half hour, twelve hundred mile trek. We decided to break it into four hour stretched of driving, then we’d stop for fifteen minutes; piss, stretch our legs and toss our trash, and trade seats. Neither of us wanted any tickets, but we didn’t let that stop us from managing to shave a little over two and a half hours off the first half of our trip. We checked into the Holiday Inn Express and Suites of Cheyenne and moved the car to a space in the hotel’s charging station. Then we made love three times before we passed out. The next morning, we showered, dressed in comfortable clothes, Tina looks amazing in yoga pants, and took advantage of the continental breakfast before we got our way. 

Despite the fact that Tina and I were going to be separated, probably even more so than when we were at school, I was really looking forward to going home. But when we approached Lima fourteen hours and twenty minutes after leaving Cheyenne and realized that our parents wouldn’t expect us at all until the next day, we decided to spend one final night in each other’s arms. After grabbing dinner, we googled a nice hotel on the other side of Lima from our homes and despite the late hour saw that it still had rooms. It was pretty late when we entered the lobby to check in, but that didn’t mean the desk clerk needed to be such a dick or ask a whole bunch of dumbass questions. I was getting ready to ask for a supervisor’s name when I finally realized who he was. It was Rick ‘the Stick’ Nelson. He’d had a scholarship to the University of Denver to play hockey. I had heard that when the final grades had been released, he’d lost his scholarship, but I didn’t know that he hadn’t gone to school at all. That was hella ironic since he was the one always telling Puck that Puck was going to spend his life as a Lima Loser. I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t have resisted rubbing it in Rick’s face if Mother Teresa had been in line behind us. 

“Hey Rick, long time no see. I heard about your scholarship. It must suck to be stuck here while everyone else has gone off to school and everything. But at least it seem like you found a good job. Those are really hard to come by with only a high school diploma these days. Have you had a chance to see SongBird yet? It was a great movie. Hard to believe that we just spend four years going to school with somebody who’s starring in a major motion picture already? That’s just wicked cool. And I’m sure that you’ve bought the sound track, or at least downloaded the KAMA songs from it. I mean, they are our hometown heroes right?”

“Yeah, it’s been great to catch up…I’d talk more but my manager wouldn’t like it. Here are your room cards. Room number 326, checkout is at eleven. Continental breakfast is available in the lounge from eight to ten. Have a nice evening.” Rick said dismissively. 

“Thanks, Nelson, Have a good night.” Tina grabbed the little green envelop containing our keycards. She dragged me to the elevator bank. “You know you were wrong for that; rubbing that idiot’s face in the fact that he is an idiot…that he’s the Lima Loser.”

I gave her a Kanye shrug. “You know he deserved it.” I said pulling our ‘hotel’ bags behind me. As soon as we were inside our room, I grabbed my girl and there were no more thoughts of Rick Nelson for either of us for the rest of the night. Tee and I made love all night rather than sleeping, so when we did check out the next morning we were as bleary eyed as if we’d driven all night. I will say one thing…sex is a hell of a lot of fun when you don’t have to worry about cleaning up afterwards and when both parties involved are approaching peak levels of human flexibility. The Continental breakfast was actually pretty awesome. On their continent, they had bacon. 

I drove Tina home first and we unloaded her bags. Looking at the way Tina’s home was decorated, you’d never know that either Madeline or Frederick Cohen were even remotely Jewish. But they definitely were. In my mind I had developed a sliding scale of Jewishness. Tina’s parents were both what I thought of as ‘genetically’ Jewish. Meaning that other than giving Tina one gift a night each night of Chanukah, no one would think they were in any way at all members of the tribe of the children of Abraham. They celebrated the secular versions of Easter and Christmas, they didn’t attend any Christian churches on Sundays, but neither did they attend Temple on Saturday. Though Tina did say that she’d actually had a bat mitzvah. Mainly because both of her grandmother and all of her aunts had been adamant that she have one. So her mother allowed her to have a joint bat mitzvah with her cousin whose birthday was the same summer as Tina’s. As far as Tina can remember that was the only time she had been to Temple other than one of her grandfather’s funeral. 

Next in the ‘broad spectrum of Jewishness according to Michael Robert Chang, Jr.’ came the Abrams. Artie and his parents went to Temple on all the Jewish holidays and they didn’t bother to even make the nod at celebrating the secular version of Easter. They did, however, give Christmas gifts to those of us who were Christians that they were close to. Artie only ever went to Temple like once a month…maybe twice. And his parents didn’t trip when he went to church with Mercedes and joined the choir there. I think I remember going to his bar mitzvah when we were in middle school. But he also told me the other day on skype that he hadn’t been near a synagogue since he’d gotten to New York. 

If the Cohens were only genetically Jewish, and the Abrams were mid-spectrum Jewish, then the other end of the spectrum would be Puck. Surprisingly his was the most religious of the three Jewish families that I knew. As long as I’d known him Puck could and would hang out on Saturdays, but only until it was time for him to go to Temple. He went religiously…even if his mom had to work and it was just him and Sarah going. Even before he could drive, if Mrs. Puckerman wasn’t able to drive them because she was working at the hospital, he would have Sarah sitting on the seat of his bike and he would standing pedal all the way to the synagogue near their house. The longest he’d gone without going to Temple had been the seven or eight Saturdays they had had to spend all day, early morning well into the later part of the night, in the studio recording their album. But even then he’d usually gone to church with Sam and Cedes on Sunday mornings. Since the album was put to bed they were mostly back to their Temple Saturday evenings, church Sunday mornings schedule like they’d had when still in high school. 

Now don’t get me wrong. I know that Puck isn’t orthodox and he doesn’t keep completely kosher…but he was a hell of a lot closer to textbook Judaism than the Cohens or the Abrams. His faith was a huge part of who he was…just like it was for both Mercedes and Sam…maybe that was why they worked so well as a thruple. Part of me also thought that was why so much good stuff happened to them…kind of like the Job story in reverse or Maybe just like the Job story but instead of plagues and locusts or whatever Satan hand made them deal with Berry and her special brand of crazy all the damn time.

I shook off those angering thoughts and I finished helping Freddie get all of Tee’s things into the house and up to her room. Maddie and Tina ‘forced’ me to stay for lunch. Madeline Cohen made the best chicken salad in the whole, entire, world. I couldn’t say no…even though I knew that my mom would want to feed me as soon as I walked into the door. It was kind of hard saying goodbye to Tina, having awoken with her every morning for the last several had firmly cemented in my heart that that was exactly how I should wake up every morning. But we were having dinner together on Christmas Eve so it wasn’t like we had a real reason for the separation anxiety. The drive from the Cohen’s house to my home wasn’t very long. Driving past the high school was still a little surreal. Looking over, it was as if no time at all had passed. Though, I guess, in the life of a school four months was a drop in a bucket in the grand scheme of things. When I pulled up in front of my parent’s house, Mama was already on the front steps waiting on me. In the little bit of time it had taken me to get out of the car, she was in front of me hugging me fiercely. All I could do in that moment was hug her back can thing that it was great to be home. 

That thought lasted through a second lunch where I caught my parents up on all that was going on on campus as well as telling them more about Nevel and how we were getting along and becoming friends. Mama then proceeded to tell me all about their excursion with the other New Direction families to go see SongBird and how they each had a copy of the soundtrack. My Father had even given copies out at his office to his coworkers as Christmas gifts. It kind of weirded me out a little, the fact that my parents and I owned the same CD, especially when Mama started talking about how she and Father had different favorite songs. Father’s favorite was ‘The Fighter’ and Mama’s was pretty much a tie between ‘Who You Are’ and ‘Somebody’s Hero’. Father spoke up only to point out that despite all the success they already were having, each of my friends were still in college and majoring in real subjects.

I had been expecting Father to be upset when he realized that I was taking almost as many dance courses as I was science and medicine classes. After all he did get a copy of my grades, so it wasn’t like I could really keep my schedule a secret from him. But I really hadn’t expected him to start in on me before I even had a chance to unpack. I simply acknowledged his point. “Yes. While Mercedes and Puck have really only had core classes so far, Sam took an architecture class last term and he is very happy with his major so far. But you know, they are also taking courses at Juilliard too.” It was really too much to think that he would let the matter drop. But I still had hope. 

I shouldn’t have bothered with optimism. “I suppose for their career it makes a certain amount of sense that they take such courses. But what need does a doctor have with dance classes?” He said with a grin that made me sad and angry in turns. 

They say that in the life of every man there comes a time when he must take a stand. Oh how I wish I could say that I had stood up for myself. That I had found my own inner strength to tell my father how much I loved to dance, of the freedom I found in movement and the joy I found in rhythm. That I had been able to look him in the eye and taken a stand to become the man I hope to be. But apparently I still had more in common with the common jelly fish than a grown man at that point. “Michael, Mike’s classes are his decision. Maybe he does become a doctor. Maybe he becomes an orthopedic surgeon who becomes world renown because he knows exactly what muscle group needs repair because his patient hurt themselves doing an arabesque or a plié. Maybe he dances for a few years and then goes on to medical school…maybe he never becomes a doctor at all. We are his parents. We will love him either way. Our job is to make sure that he grows up happy, healthy, whole and strong. We have done the first three…the time has come to help him find his strength. He cannot do that as long as you seek to keep him under your thumb.” Mama stood and left the room leaving quiet chaos in her wake. 

I had never heard such strength of will in my mother’s voice. Father and I were both looking behind her in quiet shock. For a long moment I couldn’t identify the warring emotions surging inside me. Then I realized that on the one hand I was so epically, awesomely proud of my mother. She had always deferred to my father as was ‘right and proper’, but that day she’d had the strength of will to stand up to Father on my behalf. And that was where the other emotion stemmed from…I was ashamed of myself for needing her to. Well no more. “My grades are very high despite my over flowing course load.” I started calmly. 

“Your grades could be higher. You only have a three point eight five average in your important classes.” Father argued. 

I rolled my eyes. “Which simply means that at midterms I had a three point nine GPA over all.” I pointed out. “Because I have the chance to dance every day, I have less stress than any of the other structural biology majors on campus. I am happy Father. I will continue to take to the science classes because it is intelligent to have a backup plan in case of injury or in case I am not as good as I believe myself to be. But I am sorry Father…I must live my life for me if I am ever to call myself a man.” 

“You are a child, you are to honor your mother and your father.” Father said sternly. 

“I have always and will always honor you. But I am done allowing you to run my life. I must make my own choices, reap the consequences of my own decisions. I know that I can come to you for advice, but only that Father. I should never have been afraid, literally scared to death, of telling you how much I love to dance. I do not want to move half a world away and never visit you just so that I can feel like I am living my own life. I don’t want to lie to you and hide from you the joys or even the sorrows of my days.”

My father looked at me for a very long while. “You intend to complete college taking both science and dance courses?”

I nodded. “My advisor and I think that with just one year worth of summer classes and one summer interning, I can easily graduate in four years with both degrees.” I told him proudly. Despite the fact that Tee’s two fields of study were pretty closely relates her cross degree program was slated to take five full years. But also she wasn’t taking as many classes each semester as I was.

He seemed to be struggling with some decision. “I suppose that as long as you maintain at least a three point eight five in your real classes you may continue to take the superfluous arts classes as well.” He finally said magnanimously. 

I fought against the eye roll I could feel was imminent. “I guess that’s all that I can ask for.” I said with fake joy and no small amount of sarcasm. I also took that as my cue to exit stage left.

I walked back through the living pausing to look at the Christmas tree. It was a trip to see that it was fully decorated; missing only the crystal star that usually resided in the place of honor at the top of the tree. I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my face as I realized that they had left it off so that I could put it on. “We waited for you. Your father is very determined that until you have your first child, that star will not be put in place by anyone but you.” Mama’s voice was calm and sweet. “He does love you Wǒ de jīngcǎi nánhái . He wants the best for you.”

“I know, Piàoliang māmā, I know…but I long for the day when we can be at the place where I am at least allowed to make the decisions as to what is best for me myself.” I sighed. “I am tired of feeling like less of a man than all my friends despite the fact that we are the same age. But that I how I feel because they are forging their own paths and I am stuck begging Father for the chance to decide what classes I take. Where it not for missing you, I would take courses every summer just to avoid conflicts with him.” 

Mama looked taken aback. “I will hope that I never comes to that. I would miss seeing you greatly. I will speak to your father. Many of our friends have tried to make him see the error of his ways, but he is having a hard time letting you go. Just as he did when he tried to teach you to ride your bike. He hated the thought of you getting hurt so much he must have held on to you for a mile or more.”

“Way more…it was getting pretty embarrassing there for a second. But Mama, how can I ever learn to stand on my own two feet if I am never allowed to walk without him holding my hand.”

“I will try.” Father’s voice startled us both. “I have listened as many of the other fathers of your friends have tried to explain to me that if I continued to try to bend you to my will, I will either lose you or break you and I do not want to do either of those things. I did not realize that I was starting to make you feel as if you needed to cut me from your life in order to try your wings. I do not want that to happen.” 

“I don’t either, but while I will always seek your advice and guidance when I need it. I cannot defer to you to the exclusion of finding my own path…my own happiness.” 

He nodded and we let the subject rest. Together we moved out to the car and he helped me bring in my suitcases and bag. I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and I emailed Nevel and the Tanners to let them know that we’d made it home safely. I lost some time after that to showering and catching up on the sleep I had missed making love to Tina over the last several days. Mama woke me up for dinner and after dinner we took our traditional ‘Mikey puts the star atop the tree’ picture. It was a trip that I remembered doing that from Father’s shoulders but by that Christmas I didn’t even need a step ladder. I could honestly say that I was finally becoming a man in every way. 

Miracle (Matisyahu)  
Tina PoV

I was so glad to be home. My dorm room is great and I really won the roommate lottery with DJ, but I was still extremely, extremely happy to be back in my own home and in my own bed in my own, not shared at all room. Of course, I took the time to let my roommate and Mike’s know that we’d made it home safe and sound, the Tanners and Nevel had been pretty worried about us driving cross country without any adults at all with us. But it was a good trip and we’d made love quite a lot. Which necessitated a long bubble bath followed by an even longer nap. By the time I emerged from my room, I was well rested and dusk had fallen. We went out to dinner. Mainly because Mom wasn’t a huge fan of cooking and since it was our turn to host Christmas dinner for Daddy’s family, she wasn’t doing any more than she really had to…since I was her primary kitchen aid, I wasn’t complaining at all about not doing any extra cooking. Every year we all met up at one of the four brothers’ houses as a sort of mini family reunion since it was guaranteed time off and nothing would really be open. Even though most of the family was a lot better about being religiously Jewish than we were, it was still a time we could celebrate being together. Then there was the lesser reason, which was because I’d actually missed Breadstix. 

Dinner was great we got caught up on the things I hadn’t told them either on the phone or via email which actually wasn’t much. I can and do tell my parents mostly every that isn’t sexual that goes on in my life. Granted I share the big sex stuff with Mom in an abstract or very scientific kind of way. Like I had told her when I needed to get on the pill…then when I decided to transition to the shot. But I never gave her details or anything. I think the best part was hearing their stories from when they went to college. Like when Mom had ended up missing a major admissions deadline for her second semester and pretty much ended up enrolling in whatever class had an opening. “Back then Marymount Manhattan was still a catholic school so I ended up in two religion classes that I almost flunked because I hated them so much. Thankfully they ended up giving me a ton of material to write about in my creative impressions class that term.” 

Dad’s stories were even better. “Take an old man’s advice…never, ever, ever go to a frat party at least until you’re a senior and take Mike with you. I went to a frat party with some of the guys from my dorm and I don’t even remember what I drank, all I know is that I woke up two days later in the campus drunk tank with my head shaved, no shoes and while I had the things that had been in my wallet, I have never seen the actual wallet since. And it was a damn good wallet, genuine leather and everything. On top of that it took me six months of community service to get that underage drinking charge expunged from my record.” 

I chuckled. “I haven’t even thought about going to anything like that. Most of the time I spend my weekends with Mike or with DJ and her family. There is no way I could ever talk Mike into a frat party. He only went to that last party Santana threw because she promised him that there wouldn’t be any drugs or alcohol. He told me a story once about going to one of the Titans/Cheerio parties his sophomore year, before he joined the New Directions and he absolutely hated it.”

“I knew I liked that kid.” Daddy crowed. “So, I know that you and Mike went to see SongBird, what did you think of it?”

I giggled. “Well it was epically weird that Mercedes was up on the movie screen, but the movie was really, really good. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I mean, I’ve never seen a quote, unquote black movie before…I guess I was expecting it to be like the commercials for those Medea movies…but it wasn’t. It was a really good movie and I understood the whole plotline and it was so relatable and believable. The scene where her character and her dad were finally talking about her indifference towards him and how it was his own damn fault, it was so good. Mercedes has always had really expressive face but in that scene it was almost like you could see every though Lillian had every had about Joseph and none of them were good. She was so in character that despite know her for the last four years, I couldn’t see Mercedes after a while, just Lillian.”

Daddy was nodding. “I’ve seen a few of those ‘even white people have to see this black movie’ like ‘Ray’, ‘Do the Right Thing’, ‘Glory’, ‘In The Heat of The Night’ and of course ‘A Time to Kill’…but to me this is the first time the characters on the screen weren’t necessarily about the whole blackness thing. This movie was one that was more important because of the predominantly black cast…but it still would have been relevant with Jennifer Lawrence and Jennifer Nettles, or whoever.” 

Momma shook her head in disagreement. “The movie was about the human condition, yes, but it wouldn’t have been as invocative with any different cast. Mercedes really made you feel that she was Lillian and Jill Scott…their scenes together gave me the chills. Almost like that time Mr. Chang came over to try and convince Mike to go home with him…I couldn’t even understand what he was saying and it still conveyed a harrowing sense of father versus manchild…the age old fight to prevent the child from becoming an adult not necessarily out of a need for dominance in the traditional sense, but in the hopes to protect. It was all very tense, but that was the same feeling in the scenes between Lillian and Vivian. It was a very well written script.” 

I could only agree. Michael Chang Sr. needed to loosen the apron strings before they choked the life right out of his son. Though to be honest until Mike and I started dating he’d never really pulled against them before either. I decided though that I was not sitting through another session of film theory 101 from my parents. “I know, right…and OMG the scene when Lillian was dealing with that skeevy producer who wanted her to be half naked on the album cover and she had to make the choice if she was going to go the skank route to fame or take the higher ground. God, Cedes almost made me cry for reals when she showed up at her mom’s door crying and begging to come home. It was really touching. I mean…that would be a hard decision for anyone but to know it meant having to go home with your tail tucked between your legs…it would be impossible. But that’s okay ‘cause in the end Skeevy Producer ended up realizing that he’d totally screwed the pooch. Anyway, what was your favorite song on the soundtrack?”

We didn’t leave Breadstix for another full hour as they argued between the epically awesome ‘Turn to You’, versus the equally great ‘The Climb’. Finally, on the way to the car, I just had to tell them that they were both wrong, the best song on the whole CD was, in fact, ‘The Fighter’ and that I was going to be in the video. “Mike is scheduled to start working with Marko, the choreographer, teaching Puck and Sam the moves they need to fake the fight and everything the week after New Years. The rest of us are all going to be in the video as background. I think some people will have lines, but for the most part we’re just gonna be fellow students. They are bringing in commercial actors to be the rest of the students and the teachers.”

We drove through Lima looking at all the beautiful Christmas decorations. As we finally headed home Mom turned and asked me. “Did I tell you that your cousin Rita’s adoption came through last month and they were finally able to bring Luli home with them? That is her birth name, but it means dewy jasmine so they are going to move Luli to her middle name and call her Jasmine. They will be here tomorrow.”

“Really, that was kind of fast. I thought you said it took you guys almost a full year to get me and China was even more restrictive.” I said confused. Rita and her husband had only completed the paperwork just before graduation. 

Daddy shrugged. “Apparently in certain cases, things move faster because the rules aren’t held as sacred. The baby isn’t just Chinese. The adoption agency said that the family wasn’t contesting anything and wanted her adopted quickly because she wasn’t pure…or something like that. Rita said that they thought she was part Laotian or Vietnamese…maybe even Korean.” 

I rolled my eyes. I knew better than anyone how crazy that could make some people, and not just over there either. “So what time are they getting here tomorrow? Mike and I are supposed to be meeting to exchange our Christmas gifts around one.”

“Well, the family probably won’t start arriving until around four or so. So, you and Mike are still going strong I take it?” Mom asked with a little grin. 

“Yup.” I smiled happily. There was something that one of DJ’s TAs had told her that had gotten her and me thinking. We’d talked it over with both Mike and Nevel but it was kind of a pipe dream. But something inside me compelled me to share the idea with my parents, especially since almost all of our friends knew that we were thinking about it. “One of the upperclassmen said that if we could find the right place to rent, living off campus with a meal plan could save about sixty to seventy percent over living on campus with a meal plan. DJ, Mike, Nevel and I were thinking that that was something we might want to look at doing next year maybe.”

Daddy looked back at me. “If you kids can come up with a budget where it saves you at least seventy five percent of what Berkeley is charging for dorm living…we will consider it.” 

“How are you planning to get back and forth to campus if you guys move?” Mom asked turning in her seat to give me a long look. 

Thankfully I actually had an answer to that one. “Transit out there is everywhere. I can take a bus whenever I need to but DJ said that we could just carpool since her uncle and godfather are getting her a car next year if she makes Dean’s List…and trust me nothing is standing in her way on that one. Mike and Nevel are going to do the same thing…if we are able to do it.”

“Your father and I will have to talk it over and discuss it with the Changs, but right now I don’t see a problem with allowing it as long as you meet your father’s condition.” She finally said graciously. 

As soon as we got home, we all went to bed. We were back up early cleaning the house and washing the ‘kosher’ dishes that we only ever used when Mom’s or Dad’s families were visiting. I looked through and saw that Mom had bought as much stuff pre-prepped as she could, like frozen diced onions and jars of minced garlic and pre-diced celery and bell peppers from the grocery store. We started the things that we’d needed to do ahead of time, like Mom only had one crockpot big enough for the brisket and as there were about twenty to twenty-five people to feed, we were cooking one that day and one the next. Plus potato latkes were completely awesome the next day anyway, so we were making those once I got back. But since Mom had gotten pre-shredded potatoes, most people probably used them for hash browns, I was confident that she would be fine until I got back. I ran upstairs and showered before tossing on a BCBGeneration dress I had gotten from the shopping spree the summer before. It was a black tiered mesh slip dress that I paired with flesh colored tights, black ankle booties and a sweater. I left my hair up in the bun I’d thrown it into while we were cleaning and just did a little eye brightening makeup and lip gloss. I grabbed my tote bag and made sure that Mike’s gift was inside before heading out. 

By the time I got downstairs, Mike was waiting on me with Daddy and he was grilling him about school and whether or not he felt he would be making Dean’s List or not. Mikey was looking hot as fire in a pair of jeans and a thermal Henley with the sleeves pushed up. He was hot natured so getting him to wear more than a jacket was pretty much wishful thinking unless it was ridiculously cold outside. But he helped me into my coat and I kissed Daddy on the cheek and yelled bye to Mom in the kitchen. Ushering us out the door, Mike opened the passenger door and waited until I was settled inside to close it and move around the car to get in himself. He was such a gentleman. Mike was taking me to lunch, so he got to pick the place. 

When we pulled up in front of Olive Garden I couldn’t help but smile. The Italian chain restaurant had a location in the town where we got to spend off time at Asian Camp. We’d shared our first date there. He got out and I knew that I was to wait until he opened the door for me then we headed inside together. We were seated quickly and after ordering our salads and drinks, Mike smiled at me. “So you told your parents about us wanting to live together next year?” 

“Yeah, and shockingly enough they were actually a lot more okay with it than I thought they would be.” I admitted. “How did things go with your dad and the dancing classes?” I asked cautiously.  
He shrugged. “Better that I thought it would. I think he is dealing with it…granted he had to make it seem like he was condescending to allow me to take the classes and I have to keep at least a three point eight five in everything else. But I’m fairly sure that was just so that he felt that he was saving face or whatever.” 

That just had me shaking my head. Michael Chang, Sr. didn’t like to lose face at all. Especially when it came to Michael Junior. “Well maybe if you start laying the ground work now, by the time next summer comes around he’ll not only think that you moving off campus is a good idea but that he came up with it himself. He doesn’t have to know that we’ll be living together until it’s too late for him to do anything about it.” 

Mikey just laughed. “You and I both know that he will never think that it was his idea. I will just settle for him not roaring like an angry dragon every time it is brought up.” His smile turned sly…so you ready to exchange gifts now?” 

I nodded happily and reached into my tote for his gift. When I looked up there was a pretty gold velveteen ring box sitting in front of me. “Whoa.” I gasped. I pulled out the largish, square green and red wrapped box I had and passed it to him without taking my eyes away from the my gift.  
His laughter brought me out of the trance. “It’s probably not what you are thinking it is. Not yet anyway. But I do want you to know that I love you and I’m in love with you and I never want to imagine going through this life without you at my side.” He gestured towards the box. Inside the box was a gorgeous, vintage or maybe even antique Claddagh ring. It was white gold or silver with the heart in the center of the hands made of moonstone, one of my birthstones. It was beautiful. His hands came across the table and he pulled it from the box. I gave him my hand and he put it on my right ring finger with the heart pointed towards me rather than towards the rest of the world. “When worn like that it means that you’re in a relationship.” The smile he gave me was full of love and caring. I felt warm all over. 

“I love it so much, Mike.” I whispered. “But I was feeling all proud of myself for your gift…and now…” 

He shook his head at my insanity and grabbed the box opening it carefully as was his wont. Once it got into it he pulled out the black, grey and red Speedo Tri-Clops backpack I had gotten him. “Oh this is so cool.” He said seeming to be sincerely happy with what I’d gotten him. 

“I thought it would make a good bag for your dance gear. It can get to be way too much for your regular backpack with your books and this one was really well recommended for guys who do a lot of working out and stuff.” I started to babble. 

Mike stopped looking at all the different pockets and zippers to grab my hand and soothe my nerves. “Tee, I love it. It is just what I need and it will be perfect.” He assured me. “You always take care of me.” 

“We take care of each other.” I agreed. 

The salad came out and we just talked for a while about inconsequential things. “Have you heard about the party Saturday?” 

“Oh, yeah…Mom is making a sweet potato kugel and some rugelach just for the party.” 

“My mother is making chow fun and xiao long bao, just for you.” He teased. That was the one Asian food that Mike’s mom made that I loved no matter how tired I was of having Asian food; they were soup filled dumplings that were always served super hot and they were so amazing. The rest of lunch passed quickly. We’d stuck to lighter dishes because we were both going to be expected to eat a lot in the coming days. Plus as friends of Sam Evans we knew something most people our age would have had no clue about…the existence of a by the hour, no tell motel, nearby. Plus since the place also let out rooms as extended stay for families like the Evans, the owners kept it in fairly good condition. 

Mike left me in the car while he checked in and got our key. He paid in cash because he knew his father often checked his account activity. That was why he had applied for and gotten a credit card at the campus banking fair. Mike made sure that he paid it off every month with a money order. Michael Senior could see the money order purchases, but had no idea what they were going towards. Whenever they needed a hotel room Mike used that card to pay for it. It also paid for his dancing gear. When he came back, he drove us to one of the rooms on the far other side from there the Evans had stayed. 

The room was clean even if it was less nice than Sam’s family old room. It was exactly what we needed, a bed, a bathroom and a complete lack of other people. The room had a TV, but it didn’t have a remote and cable box and seemed to play only porn. Mike hand moved to press the button again, but I stopped him. “Leave it on. I’ve never really seen any before.” The closest I had come to seeing an adult movie had been when we were in the Lion’s Den the year before and it had been playing on the screens around the room. On the TV in that room there was a brunette with large, though very obviously fake boobs, being fucked hard by two men who looked like they were supposed to be her tutors or smarter classmates. The sounds coming from the movie were a lot more arousing than the visual, 

Michael smiled and pulled me into his arms. His kisses were long and slow, deep and wet. I don’t even think I realized that my sweater had joined my coat and his jacket on the room’s only chair. However when I was standing there in just my coral pink lace bra with the matching boy cut cheekie panties covered by my tights, I startled to awareness. The room was rather cold. Mike bent down to get my dress up off the floor and tossed it on out growing pile of clothing. Feeling playful he nipped my thighs with sharp teeth as he helped me out of my booties and tights. “Fuck you’re so beautiful Tee.” He murmured as he stood and once again covered my mouth with his. I felt his fingers on my back and then the balconette underwire bra flew across the room. 

There was some serious gender inequality going on in that motel room and I wanted that to change before he could get me full on naked while he remained fully dressed. So I divested him of his Henley and wife beater. My hands found his belt clasp and I fused our lips together in another sizzling hot kiss. Only when I knew that he was as deeply into my kiss as I had been into his did I trail my mouth down over his neck and chest pulling a foil packet from his pocket and sliding his jeans down as I went. With the sound track behind us for inspiration, I decide that while I was down there I might as well give him some real slurping to listen to, so I fished MikeyBoy out of his boxers and started to lick and taste his lovely, thick shaft. He was the perfect length for me no matter what body part I was using to please him. Though his thickness made deep throating him one hell of an interesting sensation, it was one I was thrilled by every time. As I swallowed around him, milking his shaft with my throat muscles for all I was worth that Christmas Eve afternoon, the thrill was no different at all. I carefully took him as deeply as I could and look up at him with the tip of my nose hidden in the curly thatch of hair at the very root of him. 

“Tina…God you’re perfect.” He moaned before slipping deeply into his parent’s native tongue. But after a few more deep sucks, he pulled me away from my treat and my very next view of him was from the bed on my back. On seconds he was on top of me, ours bodies aligned from where our mouths were devouring each other all the way down to where my feet pressed against his shins. We wanted to take forever and revel in our pleasure, but we knew that there simply wasn’t time. He pulled away just long enough to put on the condom he’d taken from my slack fingers. I was already wet and yearning for him when he entered me and that coupled with the rush I got whenever we were that close, my scream joined those of the woman on the screen clearly showcasing what real orgasmic screams sounded like when compared with fake ones. I could feel it as my tunnel contracted tightly on Mike’s shaft, squeezing and massaging him, trying to draw him deeper making me squeal and scream even more. With a level of determination Mike would never have thought himself capable of, he managed to stave of his orgasm. He continued to make love to me through my orgasm, forcing his thick cock in and out of my contracting pussy, his teeth clenched tightly as he battled the amazing sensations to retain control. When my orgasm was over, I was left shuddering and gasping for breath, clinging tightly to him. 

“Wǒ de piàoliang de xiǎo wáwá. My beautiful Little Doll.” Mike grunted as he rolled us over so that I was on top. “Ride me. Wǒ xìnggǎn de xiǎo wáwá, make us both cum.” 

In that moment I felt every bit as sexy as he had just called me. I settled my hands against his chest for support as he guided himself against me, slowly pushing into my tunnel again. Mike groaned as he laid back, “Tā mā de gǎnjué zhēn hǎo”, his hands coming to rest on my waist to help me as I leaned forward, riding him in slow torturous drags. He tried to push up into me deeper, groaning louder “Feels so fucking good Xiǎo wáwá.” 

“So, fuck, oh Mike, so big.” I screamed out, trying to ride him faster as his head rocked back. He panted hard and tried to push up against my harder, his heels dug into the mattress. “Love you so much.” 

I leaned back, changing the angle and threw my head back, sending my hair flying and bouncing as I pushed and pulled myself up and down on his erection. Mike’s legs kicked slightly as he tried to hold on tightly, gripping my hips with large hands as he pumped into me before rolling us over again. I screamed and my hips pushed up against him as I dug my nails into him desperately, trying to pull him closer. He slammed into me harder, snorting and panting wildly, his brows knit as he bared his teeth. Mike looked like a wild man as he bucked into my, his head hung slightly so his hair fell forward. Again, I felt the delicious, nearly painful heat growing in my lower stomach, my eyes snapped open wide as I screamed and writhed for him. 

He snarled in response, one hand cupping the back of one of my knees as he pushed it to my shoulder. Mike bucked frantically into my tight, wet heat; his other hand resting over my shoulder, against the sheets to keep me in place. He felt amazing moving inside me all thick and hard forcing me to understand how slick and tight I was. He was so close! He looked me over, the half-frenetic, half-lusty look on my face, my breasts dancing as he slammed into my, the roll of my belly and hips with each of his thrusts, my welcoming body, my cunt lips puffy and pink, wrapped tight around his thick shaft. My wetness encased him in slick pleasure and he moaned louder, rocking against my harder, "Tee-Fuck, Tee, I'm about to..." He tried to pull away from my but my heels dug into the small of his back, yanking him closer, "Nǐ shì wǒ, xiǎo wáwá dōu tā mā de kuàng”, Mike’s cries joined mine as he flooded the condom he was wearing.

We made our checkout, with an entire two minutes to spare, and Mike took me home. Our parting kiss was just as hard and passionate as the one from the day before. Probably more so because while we would talk on the phone, with the last of my family not leaving until the morning of the twenty-eight, we wouldn’t see each other for four days. When Rita got there with Jasmine, however, I may or may not have lost my mind over the baby just a little bit. It wasn’t my fault. She was adorable and to be honest she made me think of both Mike and myself. Her skin was lighter, like mine…but her eyes were more like Mike’s. They opened more than mine. Her mouth was wider and lips fuller like mine and her frame was smaller but it wasn’t as small and delicate as Julia Chang. But at the same time her fingers looked all long and thin like Mike’s. I may have spent some time imagining that she was mine and Mike’s. It made the time go faster and slower at the same time. Rita and I had a blast together. She was ten years older than me and when I was little she always took care of me at the family get togethers, so she and I were pretty close. She worked as an event planner and was pretty successful, so when I told her about the party, she dragged me and Jasmine out to go shopping. 

I probably would have looked for a dress. I even saw a few really cute ones. But Rita stopped me every single time. “No. I’m buying it…I’m picking it.” She picked out a gorgeous red cropped sweater with a scoop neckline deep enough to show my C-cup breasts to the best advantage, but not so deep that it would be too sexy for a family event. It stopped even with my belly button and made my skin glow. The sleeves cut right at the elbow and the sweater itself was a soft merino wool. It took her some time looking around and making me try on different bottoms. First was a pair of black slacks that looked really rather old fashion. Those were scraped as soon as I stepped out. Next she had me try on a medium tone gray merino wool, midi A-line skirt that I liked, but Rita said was entirely too safe. Ultimately, Rita found a lambskin leather, box pleated mini skirt that she decided looked perfectly amazing on me. “And best of all it is cut so that it’s high enough to meet the sweater just right so that when you move you’ll show your Michael little slivers of stomach…he’ll drag you off after the party and Uncle Freddie and Aunt Madeline won’t see you again until Monday.” I would have thought she would have been done. But she so wasn’t.  
Instead, she dragged me to the shoe department. I tried to tell her that I had at least five pairs of shoes I could wear with that outfit, but she ignored me. One would have thought I was used to it. I tried on pumps and wedges and even slippers. But Rita didn’t like any of the black shoes I had picked. Instead she left me sitting there playing peek a boo with Jazz for a long while before she came back carrying two shoe boxes. “In my hands I hold two pairs of red suede pumps. You are getting whichever pair matches that sweater best.” 

I looked at her like she was half crazy. “Red suede shoes. I…”

“Nope…you don’t get an opinion. You’re getting these shoes because they are going to be very sexy and look really hot. Your other option is for me to go with my other idea which is going back to see what I can find in the boot department. I saw a great pair of wine and black suede over the knee boots with some sexy stiletto heels.” Rita looked thoughtful. “You know…they are on sale…if I can find you a top to match with those boots.” She chuckled. Next thing I knew she was pressing the sweater against the two pairs of pumps, and discarding one pair and making me try on the pair that she chose to keep. 

I left the mall that day with the four inch tall, over the knee boots, a pair of bright, cherry red suede five and a half inch platform stiletto pumps, a matching cherry red, merino wool, cropped v-neck sweater, a box pleated mini skirt and a black and burgundy, v-neck embroidered mesh crop top. Jazz left with a boat load of clothes too. Rita wasn’t, however as done as I thought. After we put the clothes in the car and we went home and fed Jazz and put her down for her nap, damned if Rita didn’t drag me back out of the door and back to the mall. “You need lingerie.” She told me when I asked her why the hell we needed to go back to the mall. “But Jazz loves her schedule and she is very not happy when she doesn’t get her nap at the right time and she doesn’t need to see what all I’m gonna have you try on.” 

I tried on tons of different bras, the panties would be pretty easy, it was the bra that was important. Rita pulled a whole bunch of different types and in three different sizes. I considered myself a thirty-six C, but she made me try on thirty-four and thirty-six Ds also. The thirty-four D cups fit best and that kind of blew my mind. She finally decided on the VS Very Sexy push up bra in black with pink, all over lace and matched it up with a pair of Very Sexy strappy mesh cheeky panty. I just let her do whatever she wanted me to do and let her buy whatever she wanted to buy. It made the trip go a lot smoother and we managed to get out of the mall in record time. I will say that everything Rita bought me was on sale so she spent about half of what she could have.

Saturday morning, I got up and Mom, Daddy and I all cleaned up after Uncle Harry and his crew had headed home to Phoenix. Then Mom and Daddy went grocery shopping. The family had pretty much wiped us out food wise. I was chilling out relaxing when Lauren popped up at my door. “Yo, Anime-Chica, need some help. This shindig tonight…what are you wearing?” she asked as soon as I opened it. She was standing there in her work out gear, sweaty with Vince kind of jogging in place at the end of the drive. I gave her the rundown of the two top choices and the skirt. “Look, if I drive, will you help me find something to wear. Finn and I are gonna try to work shit out and I want to remind his ass why he better make damn sure he never fucks shit up again.” 

I gave her an evil smile. “Oh it is so on.” I texted Mercedes and Santana. Lauren finished her run and showered. She was dragging Vince with her and we all piled into the car and drove to the mall. Mercedes, Santana and Cedes’ sister in laws and brand new aunt were with them. Brittany was chilling with Artie and didn’t really want to go to the mall in the crowds that shopped the between Christmas and New Year sales. I will admit that shopping with other people’s money is always a lot more fun than shopping with my own. 

The time after Christmas and the New Direction family holiday party flew by. Seemingly before we knew it we were working with the choreographer, Mike and Brittany for the video, then we were experiencing a little bit of Mercedes, Sam and Puck’s world and it was fascinating. I loved every single second of it. Not long thereafter, we were packing Mike’s car up and making the long drive back to our campuses. It took no time at all for us to get back into the swing of things. I had three core classes and a theater/performance class called writing and research and another music class, amazingly called the exact same thing. It was kind of weird. DJ and I were extremely excited when we got our schedules and found that we had the same section of American History 108. Studying together we were sure to get an A in that which would put us in better standing to get into the same poli-sci class too. The second semester was shaping up to be as awesome as the first had been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translations: Wǒ de jīngcǎi nánhái = a good/well-behaved/quiet boy (a term of endearment for a son); Piàoliang māmā = beautiful and dignified mother (A term of endearment for a mother)  
> Tā mā de gǎnjué zhēn hǎo = Fuck, feels so good.  
> Wǒ de piàoliang de xiǎo wáwá = My beautiful Little Doll.  
> Wǒ xìnggǎn de xiǎo wáwá, = My sexy Little Doll  
> Xiǎo Wáwá = Little Doll.  
> Nǐ shì wǒ, xiǎo wáwá dōu tā mā de kuàng = You’re mine, Little Doll, all fucking mine


	2. Give Love on Christmas Day & I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Give Love on Christmas Day (Jackson 5)  
Vince Howard PoV

I still had a really hard time believing that people like the Zizes and Hudsons and Elle and Finn’s friends’ parents really existed. I mean, yeah, Coach and Dr. Taylor were both awesome people and they had done a whole lot for me and gone out of their way to help me get the hell out of Dillion Texas…but if Elle, Lauren, and Finn weren’t who they were and who their parents had raised them to be, I don’t know if I’d have spent all the breaks on campus or what. I sure didn’t have enough funds to have been flying back and forth to Texas and no real reason to do so even if I had. 

Laura, Ben and Elle had been determined that I would be staying with them for the entire month of the winter break. The campus was closed but you could stay in the dorms for a charge. I’d contemplated it for a hot second, but both Elle and Finn each individually told me that they would pack my shit for me and put me in his truck themselves if I even tried. So I’d gone along with their plan. The Hudson-Hummel house was a three bedroom, two bathroom home but with Finn’s brother due home too, they didn’t really have the room for a month-long guest, unless I wanted to make the brothers give up their basement rec room, which, while Finn and his dad had offered that as an option, Elle had put a quick stop to. Her parents’ house had two extra bedrooms not including the one that her parents had for a home office. Starting that very first thanksgiving, one of them was mine for every break we had for the forseeable future. 

So much so that when I got there for Christmas the room had been done over. It had been rearranged with the double bed pushed back against one wall and the bed had completely new bedding in navy blue and steel gray. The dresser was now across from the bed rather than at its foot and there was a TV in the room that hadn’t been there before. The new arrangement gave the room a lot more floor space and made it look less like a guest room and more like somebody’s bedroom. I think I was turning around to make sure that I had gone to the right room but I turned directly into Ben and Laura standing there. “Surprise.” They shouted happily. 

Ben clapped a huge hand on my shoulder. “Lauren and Laura decided that if you had a room of your own here, you wouldn’t be so quick to feel like you ‘have to’ stay on campus to ‘stay out’ of our way or whatever nonsense you’ve been thinking. So Vince…this is your room. You are welcome to it for any and all future college breaks no matter how little or how big. If you don’t want to go to your mom’s house over the summer, well then, now you have somewhere else to be.”

Elle’s grin was mischievous and a little scary. “I told you, I’ve always wanted a brother and since God wouldn’t give me one…you are the one I pick.” She slung an arm around my shoulders and that was that. I might as well have gone ahead and changed my last name to Zizes then and there as far as they were concerned. I had to admit that, while I never would, I kind of liked that I had the option. 

Since OSU’s last day of the semester was the eleventh and we had to be out of the dorms by the fourteenth, our first day in Lima was a full week before most of the rest of Elle and Hudson’s crew got back to town. Though KAMA flew in for the weekend that first one we were there to welcome Evans’ new little brother. However without the full crew there yet, it was easy for Elle, Hudson and I to establish a routine that worked for us. We got up fairly early, though still later than we would have at school and took a three to five mile conditioning run. Then we showered and Elle worked on some film project she had to have completed within her first week of the next semester for her first primary major class, Introduction to Film for Majors. While she worked on that usually I went to Laura’s bike shop and tried to lend a hand while learning everything I could. I learned tons of stuff like how to change the oil and fluids and filters on the bike and a lot of the subtle differences between the different kinds of bikes. While I was soaking up her knowledge, she was getting me to talk through some of the issues I had with my mom and sisters. She helped me to realize that I was kidding myself and probably nobody else when I said that I had had a fucked up childhood and turned out just fine. I had some issues to work through but probably not as many as I could have had or would have had eventually if I hadn’t talked to her and agreed to seek help with student psych services. “As much as I would love to be more help, Kiddo, you’re going to have to go to a trained professional …I sat through four psych classes and then switched my major to business so I never had to take another one.” She told me honestly. 

After lunch, I forced myself to do some of the holiday reading I had to complete for my Intro to Ethics class. I usually made it through like two or three chapters before I’d give in to the need to move. That was usually taken care of by heading to the park and joining a game of basketball or whatever. That was actually where I met Puck’s little brother. He was cool people in a fucked up situation. I liked him though. Once we got cool, he joined Elle and me on our runs while Hudson went to New York to see his brother’s showcase. Sometimes he’d drag his stepsister, Tessa and her boyfriend Aidan, along too. In the later afternoons, I’d usually make dinner for the family. Since they were pretty much making me one of them, I wanted to do something to help them out and while Elle loved to eat. She could not successfully boil water. I had learned long time ago that if I wanted to eat, I’d better get damn good at cooking. After dinner Elle, Laura, Ben and I would talk about things from school or whatever. Ben Zizes was amazing at making the dry crap I had to read for my ethics class come to life with debates and discussions that picked the old white men’s thoughts apart and restructured them into something anybody could understand, whether or not you agreed with the points they were trying to make. 

That was pretty much the way our holiday went until the twentieth when Elle and Hudson’s friends were mostly all back in town and her girl Jones’ movie came out. That evening the Zizes household along with that of every single one of their friends met up at the theatre to see ‘SongBird’. Then we went out to dinner afterwards. The movie was really good, a little chick flicky, but it was easy to relate to, the storyline was good, the acting far and above what you usually see in a ‘black’ movie and the music was pretty damn epic. Which definitely made my life easier since I didn’t what to have to tell Finn or Elle that their Cedes’ movie sucked to high hell. 

Once all their friends were home, our morning exercise routine changed pretty dramatically. Elle, Hudson, Jake and I were joined by Evans, Puck, Chang, Adams, Hummel and his boyfriend Anderson, Cedes, Cohen-Chang, Lopez and Brittany. We’d head out and run to the high school which was only like a mile and half, but once we got there Mercedes or Kurt would let us into the auditorium. As part of the original members of the glee club that had gotten the auditorium renovated, they had each been given a key. Neither one of them were afraid to use. From there we’d go to the weight room and either Lopez or Puck would pick the lock and we guys, Elle, and surprisingly enough, Tina would do some strength training while Lopez, Mercedes and Brittany would let themselves into the gym and ‘run through the old Cheerio warmups’. On the days Tessa and Aidan joined us, Tessa would teach them some of the new stuff their cheer coach had come up with. We would teach Aidan some of the stuff the collegiate coaches used to work their athletes. When we were done, we made sure that we cleaned up after our selves carefully and thoroughly then make the mile and a half run back to the house. Sometimes Hummel would stick with the guys and he and Anderson would start us all sparring and, I had to admit that I had never thought that organized and stage fighting would be such a good work out. 

Working out with Elle’s crew bonded me in, apparently, because when the video cats came to town, I ended up working as an extra on both of KAMA’s videos. In the first one they filmed I played textbook jock/jerk number two. I had a speaking line and everything. Plus, in one scene I got to be the one to bully Sam’s character. Oh and of course we were all in the crowded club, performance scene. In the other one I was just in the in the park ball scene in the background shots. Even though the costumes were as uncomfortable as hell, it was really, really cool. I basically hung out with my friends for four days and ended up making just under a thousand bucks. That money would go to good use too. I made the decision that I was going to save up and buy one of Laura’s certified pre-owned Harleys. 

When we got back to campus, I had a lot of new shit too. Once I’d met Cedes mom and her brother that I really looked creepily like, Mrs. Jones was as cool/bad as Laura. She dropped by the day after Christmas and basically told me that I was taking all Devon’s old clothes that he’d left in her attic after his freshman and sophomore years of college. Probably I would have said no. I think I even tried. But somehow I still ended up with two cedar lined trunks work of clothes. And they were some good stuff too. I mean, Hilfiger and Polo and FUBU and shit. Other than his collection of sci-fi graphic tees, which his brother swung by to grab for him because he still wanted those, Devon Jones, or more than likely his mom, had some really good taste all of it was really on point. Plus too the sweaters were all northern winter weight so they were a lot heavier than the sweaters and stuff I had bought for school back home. The beginning of second semester, I was finally warm after freezing for the last two and half months of the previous semester. I never thought that rooming with Hudson would change my life so much, but man just getting to know him and Elle had been such a blessing. Something told me that things were only going to get better. 

I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Josh Groban)  
Lauren PoV

With a week after we got home before we would be invaded by my friends, I used that time to make sure that Vince was settled in his place in the Zizes family. He was part of us and I wanted to make sure that he was comfortable enough as part of the fam to join the ‘sisterhood of the traveling song’ that was Finn and my circle of friends. Once I’d gotten Vince fully intergreted in the family and we had out brother/sister relationship all settled, we started pulling in my friends. The first to get totally copacetic with Vince was Jake…not on purpose, just because the kid was going through some wild shit and his bros weren’t home yet. But those two bonded in a way that none of the rest of us could. Jake needed Vince to tell him that his mother’s, and I use that term loosely, choices weren’t because he was deficient, but because she was. And that it is perfectly okay to love her anyway. To love her for the mother she had been before she lost her fool ass mind over a man who never had deserved her. I’m sure that Dr. Danica, Gabby and Rebekah had been telling him that, and I know that Tessa was, but hearing it from someone who really understood the shit he was feeling had really driven the point home.

Christmas was pretty awesome, Mom and Dad had waited on decorating the inside of the house until we got home so we did that on Sunday evening. I never really expected Vince to have such a good eye for where decorations and shit should go. With his new eyes and apparently damn near Hummel level of attention to detail, our Christmas tree and stuff looked really, really good. On the twenty third we went Christmas shopping and while we were at the mall, we ran into the Joneses and their whole entourage. Devon and his wife, Tonya were both fascinated by how much Devon and Vince looked alike. By the end of the first five minutes of the encounter, Dr. Danica was just half way ready to fight my Mom for the Vince Howard adoption rights. In the end I think the moms came to an agreement. 

Mom and Dad had already told me about the party that was happening the Saturday after Christmas, and Finn and I talked our shit out. After thanksgiving, we’d actually done a couple of psych services sessions as a couple. Which was about as much fun as getting your pubes waxed one inch at a time. But which really helped us to get over that final hump in getting back together. For me that last hurdle was putting aside both fear and pride and deciding if the risk was worth it. For Finn it was allowing himself to really have something that made him completely happy without sabotaging it or settling for anything less. One of the suggestions we’d left our last session with was to date, not have sex, but date for a while to rebuild our trust before we took the step back into a sexual relationship. Another thing was that we needed to do was to sit down and establish our Ma’am and Finnie relationship rules, possibly even entering a Domme/sub contract. But that conversation couldn’t happen until we had started the process of returning our base relationship to firm and solid ground. 

We decided to wait and have our new first date take place after we returned to campus, but since OSU was playing a bowl game in Miami before we went back and an away game had been what started all our troubles in the first place I decided that I wanted to make sure Finn left Lima with a definite picture of what he was fighting so hard to get back. For that I needed to go shopping. For that I needed my girls…and of course Kurt. So on the way back from a run, I made a stop by the Cohen house to get Anime-Babe to assemble the troops. I mean, of course I could have done it…but that would have led to a thirty minute texting session where everyone teased and taunted me about actually wanting to go shopping. It was just better to let Tina round up the girls. 

Tina and Santana were both on board with the idea of making Finnocence suffer for his transgressions. But Santana was taking that shopping trip as her personal chance to get revenge. “Oh Moobs is so gonna regret su idiota actions. Yup…oh he’s gonna get so hard so fast that his el gigante ass is gonna cry.” She said happily. She wasn’t kidding either.

Tana was shopping like she went to war. Boom there was the skirt. Double Boom, we’ve got the top. Boom shaka laka laka, now you’re covered for shoes. Kaboom, lingerie…actually, I wish it had been that easy. We hit Lane Bryant and she found me a sexy purple matte jersey maxi skirt with a side slit up to mid thigh. It was hot and it felt good on. I was happy. Unfortunately it took her twice that long to find a top she liked and I would actually be caught dead in. Finally after four stores we agreed on a deep black surplice top with long sleeves and a deep neck line. I had to admit, the Chica had a point, it looked really good against my pale skin and dark hair. Then Anime-Babe found me the pretty much perfect shoes; black, two inch, suede wedges that looked really hot on me and were comfortable enough to make me happy. I’d gone down another two sizes in my skirt and one in my shirt size from when we’d gone school clothes shopping the summer before. Which, according to Mercedes and her crew, Mills, Patrice and Tonya, meant that I needed new lingerie too; that was fun. 

We ended up at Macy’s, mainly because Fredericks looked like a major battle had happened and someone had ended it all by setting off a lingerie bomb inside the store. But in major department stores, unless they are in the middle of a lingerie sale, it can be hard as hell finding my size. I had completely underestimated the sheer stubbornness and perseverance of the women I was shopping with. Mills looked me over, even running her hands across my back where my bra was. I grumbled in discontent…she laughed. “Lauren, I am sorry that I’m invading your personal space. But it could be worse. You got lucky, Bubbie Ruth had just left to go do some shopping with Danica, Becah and Gabs.” 

“No…no, you’re fine; you’re good.” I quickly changed my tune. “Bubbie Ruth gropes when she’s deciding sizes.” Mills and I shared the laughter that only two people who’d shared an experience could. Yet again, it proved to be a good thing to have them with me, because my bra size had changed too. I’d dropped a little in the width of my back, which I guess I had known, but somehow that meant that I had to go up a cup size too. Bras were way more complicated than they needed to be. We found a hot as hell black over nude Lunaire Sevilla Embroidered Demi Bra and Tanga panty set that I got in all five available colors. Hey, I had Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket and I was about to get back together with my Boytoy…I needed some sexy fun time wear, because one of the first of the new rules I was instituting was no more than one Finnie/Ma’am session for every two vanilla ones. We needed to learn how to respect each other as Finn and Lauren as well as as Finnie and Ma’am. 

When we left the mall I had just enough time to get home and get dressed for the party. Thankfully I didn’t have any major grooming to take care of. One afternoon the week before, while Vince was off playing b-ball with Jake and some randos at the park, Mom and I had spent an afternoon at Jewels and we had hit Veronica’s and I’d gotten Lamar to fic up my color for me. I showered and curled my hair, and did my makeup, making sure to hit my lips with some blow-job red stick. Then I slipped on the bra and panty set…I even used the chicken cutlet looking things to make the girls sit up and say howdy. The top and skirt went on and I shoved my feet into my wedges, threw my wallet and some touchup shit into my black purse and I was ready just in time. 

Heading downstairs, I saw that Vince was dressed like most of the guys there would be, dark wash jeans and a pull over sweater. Since he had his jacket not his heavy coat, I knew he was wearing at least three or four layers under the deep teal sweater. Dad was similarly dressed, just with a business shirt under his brick red pullover. Mom had fallen in love with Unique Vintage when I’d gotten my homecoming dress there. It is her go to place for dresses, though she rarely wears the damn things. She looked lovely in a hunter green lace over black satin fifties look swing type dress with three quarter length sleeves and a shallow scooped neckline. The dress had a black patent leather belt cinching in her waist and she’d finished off her look with black patent leather Mary Jane platforms. Her makeup was pretty much the same as mine, foundation and powder, eye liner and mascara and red, cherry in her case, lips. 

We headed to the Wyndam, where apparently all of our too big to be held at somebody’s house events were going to end up being held, and Mom and Dad set out our offering, traditional Russian pirozhki, potato, bacon and mushroom vareniky and Russian salmon and potato salad. I checked out the table there was a ton of shit on that table. Some of the platters, bowls, baskets and trays you can easily guess who brought them. The collard greens with ham hocks and cornbread, either Adams or Evans. The sofrito, Puerto Rican meat patties, and fried plantains were from the Lopez. The clearly Asian dumpling looking things were definitely from the Changs and I knew from Tee how good Chang’s mom could cook so I was tracking those hard core. There were platters of kugel and rugalach, Abrams or Puckermans…though the Cohen’s were a possibility too. There were platters of grilled salmon, sliced turkey and ham. Others with both meat containing and meatless dressing, macaroni and cheese, green bean casseroles, and spinach quiches, there were cheese and cracker plates and bowls of big salads containing every kind of vegetable buyable in Lima. There were cakes and pies and just looking at all of it made me hungry as hell. The only thing the hotel provided were the dishes and silverware. Some of the parents had brought in drinks and big bowls of punches. 

Instead everyone mingled first. Grades had come out the day before and not even Finn had under a three point oh, so we were all pretty ready to talk our asses off and party. I gave Finn a kiss on the lips, nice and chaste like, to congratulate him on his good grades and he gave me a big hug in thanks for helping him to get such good grades. God, that manchild gave such good damn hugs. We made the circuit. Artie, four point oh for the first semester, and I finally had a chance to compare noted face to face on the differences between our film programs. Anderson, three point seven five, Puck, three point five, and me, I had a three point nine, had big fun talking about the business courses we’d each already had. Finn and I moved on to talk to Mike and Tina. Tina was really proud of her three point four, and Mike was killing it. I dragged my butt over to Mercedes and her crew because I had to know how on earth she managed a three point five five when she was doing EVERYTHING. Sam was chilling with his sibs looking way too hot considering that he was holding his baby brother, and had Beth sitting on his shoulders. He’d managed to pull a three point three first semester and I don’t know who was more proud, Commune or their parents. 

Finally the parents said we could eat. I was damn good…I got salad, but I also got at least a little bit of everything on the table that I hadn’t already had, i.e. the Zizes’ contributions to the event. It was all so very good. I would need to run a whole three miles extra the next day, but I was so happy by the end of the night it was totally worth it. Vince and Finn had to head out the next afternoon to meet the team to fly down to Miami. But before they left, Finn and I had a good talk and we set our first official do over date for the eighteenth. 

The team beat Clemson at the Orange Bowl with Finn at quarterback for the second half. Best of all Finn managed to keep his clothes on and stay sober all through the celebrations. From what I learned from one of the cheer chicks I was actually cool with, she was a business major and we’d had a class together first semester, the cheerleader who had been trying to push up on Finn since before we broke up got told all about herself in Finn’s own way. Lucia even taped it for me and shot it off to me within minutes. The girl had long brown hair that actually looked a little bit like mine…her highlighting job wasn’t as good…but not everyone had a Lamar in their lives. She had rolled up on Finn and was batting her eye lashes at him when he stopped her cold. “Look, Chrissy, I’m sure that you’re a very nice girl, when you aren’t being a total skank. I mean, I’m taken. I have a girl. You are not her. My friend Santana said that I should just be blunt and tell you that I don’t want you so here I am being as blunt as I can and telling you in the nicest way possible that I do not want you. Trust me, if I said it the way Santana made me rehearse, you’d run away in tears and possibly swallow a whole bunch of something bad. But still you are making yourself look really, really pathetic and more than a little sad. How would you like it if you were with a guy and some other girl kept trying to steal him from you? Wouldn’t that hurt you? Well, you are not hurting Lauren ever again. Have some self-respect and go find a guy who wants you for who you are. It’s not gonna be me.” He gave her a sad smile. “Now look, you can stop on your own, or my next step is to report you for harassment. If I have to do that I’m going to tell Lauren exactly who you are. I’ve been keeping that from her, and before you think it is to protect you, I’m only doing so to make sure that she doesn’t do something and get in trouble. Now, have you met my roommate, Vince? He is really cool and I don’t know if he dates white girls, but he is single.”

It could have been a whole lot meaner, but it was Finn and he wasn’t naturally an asshole. He could be, he had asshole tendencies, but they tended to stay under wraps for the most part. Lucia put that shit up on her Facebook with Chrissy’s real name. ‘Chrissy Camp’s Epic Boyfriend Theft Fail’ was the tag line. Unfortunately for Camp, that shit went viral. Women around the country weighed in with their opinions. The slut-shaming got a little ridiculous and by the time classes started a couple of days later, everyone on campus knew her name and she had no friends at all. I was a little surprised when the professor in my technical and business writing class called her name. I thought she was at school for an MRS degree and thus wouldn’t take any real classes. Looking over at her it was kind of sad…she looked straight up downtrodden. After class I stalked over to her and looked her up and down. “I just thought I’d stop by and say hi since we both have the same taste in men.” 

She looked up and sighed. “Let me guess, if I stepped to your man like I stepped to Finn Hudson you would totally kick my ass.” 

I shrugged. “Something like that.” I took a seat next to her. “I’m Lauren Zizes, that girl Finn referred to having…that’s me.”

“So is this where you kick my ass for scamming on your man?”

Shaking my head I calmly answered no. “You see, if I have to kick your ass for scamming on him…that implies that I think you’re going to be successful. Well the way I look at it, if you’re successful than he was never really my man in the first place. I going to do you a favor and point out that if you ever manage to be successful scamming on another woman’s man, it probably won’t be worth it in the long run because if he will cheat with you, he will cheat on you. You might want to think about that before you get too deep into the whore hole you’re heading towards.” I gathered my stuff all up and headed to my next class. Camp didn’t bother Finn or myself again. That weekend we drove up to Lima to film the two videos Commune were doing. I managed to get my film professor to give me credits and everything. My second semester of college was off to a damn good start.


	3. Chanukah Song (Adam Sandler)/Feliz Navidad (José Feliciano)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BritArTana Thanksgiving & Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories
> 
> Special thanks to Isis Aurora Tomoe and JazMitch who have proven to be Beta rock stars for my Christmas story

Chanukah Song (Adam Sandler)  
Artie PoV

Its strange how the Hebrew calendar and the regular calendar can line up so perfectly in April for Passover and Easter and yet not at all when it comes time for Chanukah and Christmas. When everybody headed back to Lima for Thanksgiving, Tana, Britts and I stayed in the big city joined by our families. Cedes, Sam and Puck had given us the go ahead to put the Pierces in their guest room and which would leave my parents and Santana’s on our second floor. My Devil Doll’s Tias all showed up early Wednesday morning bringing with them everything they would need to create Thanksgiving dinner. Since one of her aunts, Selena I was eighty-nine percent sure, was married to a gentleman whose last name was Fleischmann, they were cool with celebrating Chanukah with us as well. Selena brought a lot of what we would need to prepare for that night’s dinner as well. It was the first, and most important night of Chanukah.

While Tana’s other aunts, Lucia and Valeria, used Cedes and Kurt’s much more often utilized kitchen, Selena and I used our kitchen to keep at least somewhat close to kosher. Brittany flitted between both of us. When my parents got there, me and Selena didn’t even hear them come in. We had my iPad blaring in the kitchen Home dock. Selena’s taste in music was totally awesome…a lot like her niece…we had jammed out to Amy Winehouse while prepping the brisket. We’d sang along to the musical artist Selena while we’d worked on herb sauce for the salmon. While we were shredding the potatoes for the latkes, we’d gone through Peaches and Herb’s whole catalogue. Anita Baker had seen us through the making of the kugel. Though thankfully Selena had bought the challah from her favorite Jewish bakery. She whipped up a batch of apple cider fried donuts that made me refuse to rip her a copy of my play list until she gave me the recipe for. When Mom and Dad arrived, the brisket was already in the oven the salmon was under the broiler and the latkes were in the warmer.

It wasn’t until just before dinner that Santana’s grandfather and uncles all arrived. While all of them had had the day off, or at least half of it, they had all made excuses not to get there any earlier than they had to in order to avoid all the work according to Selena and my Devil Doll. The men said that it was to give them less time to piss off the very volatile women in their family. The truth of the matter was that I could easily see both sides of the issue, but it wasn’t my business, so I kept my nose out of it. After seeing that they were settled in the family room, I headed back into the kitchen to find that Mom and Selena had bonded almost as tightly as Mom and Maribel had…so when Mari joined us, apparently there was some deep seated issues between Mari and her sister Lucia, they were never allowed in the same kitchen at the same time…ever. It had gotten to the level of ‘Family Rule’. I knew from the look on Tana’s face when she told me that…it was best if I never, ever, asked for more information on the subject and just adhered blindly to the rule. When Maribel joined us, I got kicked to the curb and the three of them finished everything up.

The Pierces arrived not long after the Manjarrez men. Melanie had a much younger sister who technically lived in upstate New York. Margaret McCarthy was a photographer who moved around the country almost constantly taking pictures and selling them. I had seen some of her work…it was pretty damn great. Melanie and Christopher had flown into Buffalo-Niagara International and driven down with Maggie and Christopher’s parents to celebrate the holiday with us. The Pierces were all nice people. But for the most part they were like Melanie and Chris, hardworking, diligent, and, well, normal. However meeting Maggie I could finally understand why none of Britts family ever seemed bothered by her ‘Brittanyness’…they were completely and totally used to it. Maggie and Brittany were so much alike at one point it seemed as if they had their own, separate language.

Once everyone sat down to dinner it proved to be a very lively affair. Chris’ parents got along well with Lucia and her husband Juan. My mom and all the sisters with the exception of Lucia got along great. Funnily enough Dad and everyone, except the guy they all assumed he’d have the most in common with, Selena’s husband Peter, got along great. Peter was a tall, lean guy who looked like a cross between Jerry Seinfield and Benedict Cumberbatch…with absolutely no discernable sense of humor. The only problem was that he swore he was the funniest man since Robin Williams. He annoyed Dad so bad I thought my father was going to come across the table at him at one point. Selena just watched their interactions with a small smirk on her face. Apparently she found it all very funny. Granted I did too, so I couldn’t throw too many stones. Once dinner was over, the men…at least the ones who hadn’t done any cooking…had to do the clean-up. The only men not forced into dishes duty were myself and Abuelo Taurino. Santana was assigned the chore of taking her uncles Mario and Teyo to Cedes’ kitchen and supervising their cleanup over there to make sure that they didn’t even attempt to put Cedes’ expensive ass pots into the dishwasher. Danica had told us all about what not to do with those pots. There was a ten minute tutorial and everything. When clean up had been handled to the women’s satisfaction, we were just in time to begin lighting the menorah.

Well technically the nine piece, glass candle holder set was a Hanukkia. It had one Shamash, the center holder, which was taller than all the others. It was also more modern since it the nine holders were not joined together in a central holder. Instead it had a beautiful faux suede lined, rosewood box that the holders rested in during the rest of the year. We had set it up in the front window of the more formal of our living rooms. While it was a little later than probably proscribed, there were still plenty of people on the streets and we were all definitely awake in the house, so we settled down and started. Mom began by telling the story of why we celebrate Hanukkah. Then we lit the helper candle and used it to light the right most candle from the Shamash. Then Dad did the first of the three blessings in both English and Hebrew.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah light. Ba-ruch A-tah Ado-nai Eh-lo-hei-noo Meh-lech Ha-olam A-sher Ki-deh-sha-noo Beh-mitz-vo-tav Veh-tziva-noo Leh-had-lik Ner Cha-noo-kah.”

As the next elder Jewish male, we had Peter do the second blessing. “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who performed miracles for our forefathers in those days, at this time. Ba-ruch A-tah Ado-nai Eh-lo-hei-nu Meh-lech Ha-olam Sheh-a-sa Nee-sim La-avo-tei-noo Ba-ya-mim Ha-hem Bee-z’man Ha-zeh.”

Then I led the third. “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion. Ba-ruch A-tah Ado-nai Eh-lo-hei-noo Me-lech Ha-olam Sheh-heh-cheh-ya-noo Veh-kee-yeh-ma-noo Veh-hee-gee-a-noo Liz-man Ha-zeh.” Then all three of us along with Mom and Selena sang the Haneirot Halalu prayer.

The candles were left burning while we had our dessert of fried donuts and churros with vanilla bean ice cream on the side. In deference to the rules of the holiday, Melanie and Chris were kind enough to bring the food into the dining room. As we were talking, I noticed that both Maggie and Abuelo Taurino had disappeared, though they were both present and accounted for during the lighting ceremony. That was a little weird, but no one else seemed to want to comment on it, so I ignored it as much as the others did. Instead we talked about things like our favorite previous Chanukah’s for me, Dad and Peter…where we had given our charity that year. I had found a great organization that helped paraplegics and quadriplegics. So that was where I decided I would give every year for Chanukah. My parents always liked to give me my gelt early so that I could make the contribution ahead of time. It wasn’t a huge amount, so I gave all of what they gave me to the SCORE Fund. That way I wouldn’t feel guilty in keeping the gelt my grandparents sent me. It was always the higher of the two anyway. We didn’t do gifts in the same way as the Cohens did with Tina or like Mrs. Puckerman did for Puck and Sarah. Not since I was old enough that my parents started having a hard time figuring out what to get me.

By the time we’d exhausted that subject, and all the explanations that had to be given therein, we turned to talking about the things we were looking forward to about dinner the next night. Santana’s cousins would be joining us for that dinner as would a few of mine who lived in the city. I didn’t really know them well. We were a weird family. Some of us were close, most of us weren’t. I was probably closest with my mother’s cousin Howard. He was pretty awesome and his wife, Bernadette was so smart it was almost scary. The cousins in Brooklyn were from Dad’s side of the family and we actually shared the same last name but I hadn’t seen any of them since Dad’s grandfather had died when I was like seven. Dad was only close with a rare few of his first cousins. One of them, Jonathan along with his wife Vanessa and their fifteen year old daughter Julianne would be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner and staying for the lighting of the candles. My theory on it was that they were really only coming in the hopes that I would talk up NYU enough that their daughter would want to go there. I could try, I did love the place. It was pretty awesome.

Other than Dad’s hope to reconnect with a cousin he hadn’t seen in years and Lucia’s enjoyment of getting having both of her sons home for a visit, we were all looking forward to the food the next day. Mom loved Mexican food and since she finally began to accept Santana, Britts and I being together, she had been dying to try Puerto Rican food. The dinner menu was a mix of traditional American Thanksgiving entrees and traditional Puerto Rican side dishes. It was pretty universal that we were all looking forward to the food. After taking care of finishing off the lighting ceremony by cleaning everything up once the candles had burned down to nothing, everyone was ready to find our homes or beds.

Since we had the three guestrooms, our immediate families would be staying with us, while the extended family members would either return to their houses or adjourn to their hotel rooms. Brittany’s grandparents had gotten a room at the Harlem Grand which was a BnB only about five blocks from the house. Tana’s Uncle Mario was kind enough to offer to walk them to their hotel on his way to the subway. They headed out first, followed soon there after by Valeria and her ridiculously effeminate marido Eduardo. My delicious Devil Doll’s theory was that they duo had actually used each other as protection against their conservative catholic families probable ill will towards their sexuality. Since the Manjarrez family’s acceptance of Santana’s bisexuality and our relationship, Valeria was a lot more secure in their acceptance of her. Tana wasn’t sure what Eduardo’s family would do since he was the only boy, but she did know that one of his sisters was out and proud. Besides the Romeros weren’t getting any grand kids from him and Valeria anyway. They didn’t have any kids and had no plans to have any anytime soon and she was already almost forty.

The only exception we’d made when we had originally planned to make to the whole extended family sleep elsewhere was for Britts’ aunt Maggie. She was saving up for some big thing she wasn’t telling anyone any real information about, so she was staying in the family room so she didn’t have to spend any more than necessary on the trip. We definitely understood that. Lucia was the next to leave, after she took a turn in Mercedes’ kitchen to make sure that everything was clean and put away to her satisfaction and that all was in readiness for the next day’s meal. As her husband helped her on with her coat, she looked around disapprovingly. “Did Papi just leave?”

I found it interesting that none of his children seemed all that surprised. Selena shrugged and sighed. But since that was all that was said, none of us who weren’t related by blood said anything either. Just to be thorough, Tana and Britts checked through the first floor of both apartments, and he wasn’t anywhere to be found in either. Finally the whole family just decided that Papi was a grown ass man and he knew where he lived. So they all said their good nights and told us that they would see us the next day. Once we had the doors locked and the alarm set, Brittany took her parents over to Cedes’ guest room while Santana and I took our parents up to the two guest rooms on our second floor. Even if we had thought to check the upper levels, there was nothing on earth that could have prepared us for what we saw when we opened the door to the room that was to house Maribel and Santiago for the weekend. Maggie McCarthy was butt naked, her hands tied behind her back by what looked to be scraps of lace that may, at one time, have been her panties. She was kneeling in front of and leaning her head and shoulders on the bench at the foot of the room’s double bed. Taurino Manjarrez was behind her with his pants down around his knees and his shirt tucked under his chin as he was fucking the dog shit out of her. I mean, if fucking was an Olympic event, Abuelo was going for the gold. The sixty-six Puerto Rican grandfather was fucking the pert, lithe thirty-two year old photographer like he owned her ass. Then again with screams that begged Abuelo to give “his little chica blanca a pretty Puerto Rican baby” maybe they had already worked out the whole ownership issue.

“Papi,” Maribel groaned. But she didn’t sound shocked or appalled. I could only describe her tone as resigned exasperation. “Couldn’t you have at least taken her to your home…we have to sleep here.” She muttered as Santiago quickly ushered us back into the hall way.

Santana groaned. “That’s it, I might as well go ahead and sign up for reality TV. I’m going to have an aunt or uncle young enough to be my child…and it is going to be the first cousin of one of my lovers.”

I couldn’t resist, and apparently neither could my dad or hers. We all, in the exact same moment, started whistling ‘Dueling Banjos’. The music’s reference to slack jawed, inbred yokels made us all dissolve into roars of laughter. We showed Mom and Dad back to their room further down the hall, “Thank Yeshiva you guys went with the sound proofing insulation.” Mom muttered.

We said our good nights and escaped to our room. Of course, when Brittany found the two of us dying in laughter on my chair in my gamer’s den, we had to tell her what had been witnessed. “Oh. Yeah, Maggie wants a baby very badly. I thought she was going to try and wait to have one with her black friend in California. But I guess Abuelo was a lot closer and he does have six smart, beautiful kids who have grown into successful adults. Besides Lord Tubbington told me that she was going to name the baby Teodor and I thought that sounded more Spanish than Black.”

Santana rolled her eyes. “Britts how many times do I have to tell you…when Lord Tubbington tells you something that directly impacts my life I want to know about it.”

Britts just shrugged unconcernedly. “He didn’t tell me that it would be your Abuelo. I figured that out at dinner. You didn’t notice that he was fingerbanging her for most of the meal?” she asked, truly unsure why we didn’t see what she had seen.

“Say what now?” I asked incredulously. “But she was in jeans.”

Santana laughed. “That’s my Abuelo.”

Brittany nodded. “Remember that time Santana managed to fish your cock out in that McDonalds and no body…not even you knew it until she slipped under the table and licked you? She’s magic like that. I guess she got it from her grandfather. I wonder if Maggie’s baby will have that magic…maybe ours babies will too.”

There was nothing either Santana or myself could really think to say to that, so we headed into bed. The next day dawned early and brought with it more love making between me and my girlfriends. Since Santana had the most family and said family had the highest likelihood of getting on her nerves to the point that she said something irreparable, we let her have all the control. For over an hour she commanded and we pleasured…her and each other. Then we showered and got dressed. My beautiful Dolls looked so amazing. Santana wearing a pair of super skinny jeans and a brick red sweater with a pair of over the knee brown suede looking boots. Brittany had gone a different route with a pretty blue skirt that came down to her calves and a cropped winter white sweater with sleeves that stopped halfway down her forearms…her feet were shod in cream colored ballet flats. I’d put on what Satan told me she wanted me to wear so I was wearing a pair of jeans and a navy blue argyle sweater. With an ivory collared shirt on under it and red lines through the squares of the plaid the three of us looked cohesive without looking like we were matchy or whatever. I doubted that Santana was even aware that she did that a lot…dressing us to look like a single cohesive unit.

Once we were downstairs the day passed in a flurry of activity followed by bursts of wait time then boom more activity. There were a total of thirty people who would be sharing the holiday together Seventeen related by blood to Santana and five each related to Brittany and I, plus the three of us. It was definitely a crunch. With the leaves put into both dining room tables and places set at both the breakfast bars, we had enough room for everyone. It was funny, for the most part things divided down age lines. The older people except Abuelo Taurino, chose to have dinner in Cedes & Kurt’s more poshly decorated dining room, while the next gen, Santana’s and my cousins and Brittany’s aunt and Abuelo Taurino, who looked at Maggie lie she was a cow and he was the bull he was named for, Selena and Peter, and of course the three of us all stayed in our side. After making notice of the fact that Maggie had made sure to wear a dress that left her easily accessible to Taurino’s fingers…I spent the entire meal carefully not making eye contact with either Abuelo or Maggie; lest I started to laugh. I knew if I started, I wouldn’t have been able to stop. Brittany was completely unconcerned. Santana looked proud. I guess she had reason to be. My Grandfather used Viagra, I’d seen it in his medicine cabinet once, hers was completely unmedicated and, apparently, still one hell of a Latin lover.

Dinner itself was magnificent. There were honey glazed hams at both tables and roasted turkeys, though they tasted amazingly different. There were two different types of stuffing, a traditional corn bread stuffing and a mofongo, fried green plantains mash and ground meat stuffing. There were the American traditions like regular rice and gravy, green bean casserole and broccoli, but there were also a few Puerto Rican dishes like Arroz con Gandules, a Puerto Rican style rice with pigeon peas, guineitos en escabeche, traditional pickled green bananas, and ensalada de papa which was a potato salad with mayonnaise, green peppers, sweet red peppers, apples, hard-boiled eggs, and yellow onions. We all tried a little bit of everything, then dug in hard core to our favorites.

After Dinner, and taking care of clean up, the guys took over our family room to watch the Detroit Lions take on Green Bay. The women managed to find a Say Yes to The Dress marathon that they could all agree on. I didn’t watch the show voluntarily but knew that I would soon see at least one episode. Puck’s mom’s episode wouldn’t air until the new season started in January. He had already planned the viewing party. I think I shocked some of the men in the room with how much I knew about football. But hell I had played little league football before the accident and I was the equipment manager for the Titans for years. Eventually one of the other men in the room couldn’t hold back his curiosity and to be honest I was more than a little surprised that it came from Mario rather than his father. “So little white boy…how the hell did you pull two chicks, let alone one like my little sobrina?”

Probably if it had been Santana’s grandfather, my answer would have been less flip, but it was Mario, and he was the uncle everyone always joked and kidded about. “I guess I just have it like that. My Swag game is just that awesome.”

Dad reached over and smacked me upside the back of the head. “Either you just disrespected Brittany and Santana, or you just disrespected the love the three of you share. Either way, you earned that smack. Now answer with some thought and consideration.”

I ignored the snickering of the other men as I tried to formulate a more thoughtful answer. “I guess the truth is that I have been very, very lucky. Brittany and Santana have been in love for a very long time. But Tana wasn’t ready to really label that relationship. Then when Brittany and I dated we came to love each other just as fiercely and just as strongly. But in a moment of anger, I said something that hurt her. I’m still surprised that she was so willing to forgive me and just be my friend again. I thought that that was all we would be and I was okay with that because the fact that I had experienced her love for even a few months was such a shock to me, I mean guys like me don’t end up with girls like Brittany or Santana. So when Brittany and Santana got together in a much healthier way, I was their number one supporter. Santana made Brittany happy and that was all I wanted. Then Santana and I started to really get to know each other. We realized that we had a similar sense of humor, even if I usually hid my dark side and she fully, fully embraced hers.”

“Well, she is my granddaughter.” Taurino said with a hearty and proud laugh.

I shook off thoughts of how much alike Taurino and Santana really were and finished answering my girlfriend’s uncle. “Once Santana became my friend, once she finally let me see the real her…how could I help but fall in love with her. Then when she said that she wanted me to join her and Brittany there was no way I could say no. It was a dream come true. Not the whole threesome part, but the whole being with both of the women who had made me feel the love I’d always sung about.”

“Wow,” Dad’s cousin, Jonathon, said with a small grin. “That was deep and it was beautiful. So I bought that soundtrack Roger said I would need to have proof of getting before he would need to have proof of getting before he would allow me to eat.” He joked, “The young group on there, Karma-”

“KAMA.” Dad corrected automatically and before I could.

“Sorry KAMA, those are your roommates right?” I nodded and he continued. “Julie, she listened to the whole the thing a hundred times. She said that KAMA was gonna be huge because people her age hadn’t found a voice out there yet that spoke for them and actually had something important to say. At the same time…I worry because the young lady may not be the best of role models…she is in a relationship with both of her bandmates, correct?”

I rolled my eyes. “Wow.” I quoted snarkily, “that was both misogynistic and hypocritical. Consider for a moment that a few minutes ago you were applauding the depth and beauty of the romance and sentiment I espoused about my relationship. Now listen to you claiming that a young woman…one of the single most morally upright people my age I know other than one of the men she is with…is less than a good role model for being in a relationship that exactly mirrors mine, only it has already lasted longer. The way they came together even more romantic. But you are struck by a black woman being with two white men…so in your mind is she leading them astray or is she the weak willed victim to their lust?”

“I. I mean-…I,”

Shaking my head I cut him off as he yammered. “Mercedes is the best role model you could ask for for Julie. Because Cedes would always tell her, and any young woman to value herself and her body as more than a tool to slake base lust…hers or his. She would tell her to be completely upfront and honest with herself and any possible partners that it is wonderful to find someone you love so much that imagining life without them is an impossibility, and to never, ever settle for less than that kind of love. You see their relationship and make assumptions as to Cedes’ moral fiber while you laude my success with Brittany and Santana. But it would be Mercedes who could look Julie in the eye and say that she never undervalued herself enough to sleep with anyone that she wasn’t fully and totally committed to. That she was a virgin until she gave herself to the two men who are with her still, now and forever. If I am ever blessed enough to be the father of a daughter. I will have her sit down with Mercedes Jones and with Santana…she will be able to hear from both of them the things they have experienced and the things they regret and they things they wish they could experience. I already know that each of them will tell her that waiting is never a bad thing. That, when it comes to deciding whether or not you are ready to make love for the first time, knowing what you want is more important than giving someone else what they want. I fully believe that those are the best ideals a young woman can learn.”

Jonathan had the good sense to look embarrassed. “You’re right. I am sorry. It was definitely hypocritical of me to applaud you and disparage your friend.” He apologized.

“It’s okay. I just…Cedes was the first black person at school who was cool with me being me. The fact that I loved black culture and music never bothered her. I mean she’d always pull me back before I got my silly butt kicked, but she was never insulted by the way I spoke or the way I sang. She was always ready to sing with me.” I told them honestly. “So I’m a little over protective of my sister from another mister.” 

“That is understandable. Finding true friends, ones who accept you for who you are is a thing to be treasured…their friendship should always be staunchly protected.” Eduardo said quietly.

“Ey, enough of this feelings garbage…” Taurino growled. “Let’s just watch the game before we all lose our dicks and switch to TLC.”

Despite the rather distressing way he stated his desire to return our attention to sports, we all did so. I knew tons about the sport, I loved watching live games, but watching a game on TV just wasn’t my thing. So I introduced the idea that it was time for dessert. Since we were breaking an unstated, don’t eat anything but easily cleanable snacks outside the dining room, rule…we served dessert on our side of the duplex only. Each of the families represented brought/made a different dessert. Mom made her special double chocolate, fudge topped brownies. Brittany’s mom made a carrot cake, her grandmother made a spiced rum pound cake. Santana’s aunt Selena brought arroz con dulce, a sweet rice pudding prepared with evaporated and condensed milk, coconut cream, sugar, cloves, vanilla extract, raisins. She served it cold with cinnamon. Eduardo made his mother’s secret recipe pumpkin flan with caramel, star anise sauce. I wanted him to teach Santana that recipe so badly…but he swore that his mother would kill him as a sacrifice to her ancestors if he ever taught it to someone who wasn’t a blood Romero. I had never experienced a Thanksgiving like that. I was so full by the end of the dessert that I had to take a nap. When once everyone got back together after our post dessert naps…though I think it was a triple X rated ‘nap’ for Taurino and Maggie, we decided to break out the board games.

A bunch of us went with a traditional board game called ‘Pandemic’ where we were responsible for identifying, then containing and finally eradicating an outbreak of a knarly illness before it could go international. We got hella into that damn game. People wouldn’t even go home until we had finally eradicated the contagion. The other half of our huge gathering played this massive online trivia game, where Carlos played Alex Trebek. They went all in with him asking questions, eliminating people when they missed three questions in a row, until they eventually came down to just Christopher’s dad, Ben, and Abuelo. They finally called it a draw shortly before one in the morning. When Abuelo went home, Maggie went with him. Which was great because we didn’t finish our game until after four. Eduardo and Valeria went home to their apartment on the upper west side, but everyone else who been playing found a place to crash and made their ways home after they had gotten some sleep and then helped those of us who lived or were staying there officially to clean up the house.

The rest of the weekend was spent quietly. Then on Sunday, while we were a little sad to see our parents leave, it was great to be able to get back to just living our lives, going to classes, helping our friends with their budding music careers. It was exquisite. I was so glad that we were heading home for Christmas. It made things much easier to not have to deal with quite so much family togetherness. I hated sleeping without Santana and Brittany, but I was ready to be home for a hot minute.

 

Feliz Navidad (José Feliciano)  
Santana PoV

My life was entirely different than I thought it was going to be by that point. I was in one of the world’s best colleges. I was living in the single coolest residence to ever house a bunch of college students. I was making extra money doing something that I really loved and that didn’t really take much of my time or energy. And doing it for and with people I could actually stand. I was deeply in love with two people who got me and let me be me. As time went by and Crazy Berry made herself less of an annoyance and more of a threat, I knew that I was getting closer to being able to being allowed to break my foot off in her ass and best of all her dumbass was burning her bridges so fast that I was going to have an alibi of all of my friends no matter when and where I did it.

We went home to Lima for Christmas. While I missed sleeping with my lovers, it was nice to be back alone in my bed at least that was true the first few nights. Being able to stretch out like a starfish when I needed to. Wearing a pretty night gown, if I wanted to, was a novelty…Artie and Brittany had both banned any unnecessary clothing from our bed the moment we moved in. We got to Lima just in time to chill with the families for a little while before going and watching SongBird. It was a great movie, and I was more than happy to see it more than once. Zizes and Moobs were leading us all in exercising on the damn daily. I thought that I would be through with that shit when I was off the Cheerios…but I loved being hot so it was a tradeoff I had to make. Vince was cool. I hadn’t come home at Thanksgiving, so I met him for the first time when we were all at the theatre and didn’t get a chance to find out shit about him that I didn’t already know for a few more days after that. He was added to the short, but growing, list of people who didn’t make me itch to cut a bitch. Adams still hadn’t successfully made it onto the list…and despite our shared history, Karofsky probably never would. That mutherfucker was still too weak to come out of his closet. Not something I could respect. Hence why I had to drop the hiding shit my damn self.

Going home for Christmas was weird. We spent so much time with Commune and Klaine, and hell, with each other that spending time with just ourselves…it was a bit of a stretch. Unfortunately thanks to Brittany’s delightful mother…the adults all thought that it was a wonderful idea to make the first week we were home ‘family time’. We got around it with things like the morning workouts and with me, Artie and Brittany having a Christmas gift exchange dinner previously planned for Christmas Eve. But for the most part we were staring at our parents or reminiscing with our parents or talking over our hopes and dreams for the future with our parents.

I loved my parents, but I hadn’t spent a week with just them for company since I was like twelve. I looked forward to every single chance to escape like I was serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. The first one that I really, actually enjoyed was my date with my boos. Our date was at Breadstix at seven on Christmas Eve. We decided to go all out and get dressed for real. That may have been my idea. I had found a gorgeous ruby red, Halston, cocktail dress for half off at Nordstroms. It had long sleeves, thus making it ‘winter appropriate’ but it bared my shoulders and stopped about midway down my thighs. Mama had seen it when she was ‘helping me unpack’ and had offered me five hundred for it, so the date would be the only time I’d get to wear it. It took me a second to decide on the perfect shoes. I know that it was the current fashion to wear nude heels, but the black booties made such a striking picture with the dress and pulled it down the formality scale enough to not look out of place in Lima. So I went with those. I left my hair nominally curly and flowing down my back with natural look makeup and lips that matched my dress. I was ready to go.

Since the Cayenne was under lock and key in the secure parking structure at the house in Harlem, we were going to meet up at the restaurant. I borrowed Mama’s beamer and got there only like eight minutes late. Artie was waiting on my in the antechamber, “Damn, Devil Doll…you look good enough to eat. Our Angel Doll is running a little late. Chris didn’t get home on time.”

I checked my phone and realized that in my rush to get there reasonably on time, I’d missed a bunch of texts. “You look hot, yourself.” I told him with a smile. He did look good in black slacks, black tie and a turquoise dress shirt that made his eyes pop behind his glasses. We talked about the things that had happened in the few days since we saw each other last.

He told me about how much fun his mother was having with the fact that he wasn’t sleeping worth shit without us. I confessed that it felt a little strange to sleep in pajamas again. Brittany showed up while I was telling Artie about the profit I was making on the dress sale. She looked amazing in a tropical print on a field of cream shift dress that made her look angelic. We were seated pretty quickly. There didn’t even need to be any discussion of what we wanted. We ordered our drinks, appetizers, salad, entrees and dessert all in one fell swoop so that we could talk and yeah, gets our macks on while waiting. I think the way we did it though confused the silly waitress. She handed Artie my diet coke, me Brittany’s sprite with grenadine and gave Britts Artie’s real coke. We switched right in front of her. So she brought us two baskets of breadsticks o start with rather than the usual one.

Dinner was good, but eating out in New York had definitely matured my palette. When the waitress cleared the table of our entrée plates, we took that time to exchange gifts. Buying a gift for Brittany was always easy. I donated some money in her name to an animal shelter or charity and that year I also gave her two designer, hand knit head bands with puffs that looked like kitten or Mickey ears. “Oooh, they’re so pretty and soft.” She muttered as she quickly threaded her hair through the white one pulling it up into place. There was an unspoken rule in our relationship, on days we all gave each other gifts, Brittany always opened her gifts from us first. So as soon as she finished with mine, she turned to the small box Artie had given her. Inside was a necklace, on the chain were three stones round cut stones. At first I thought it was two of my birthstone on either side of a diamond for Brittany’s April birthday…but looking closer I realized that one stone was an aquamarine for Artie. The stones were all the same size and aligned in a semi-circle and set in silver circles and hanging on a silver chain. It was really pretty. I loved the subtle difference between Artie’s March birthstone and my December one. “Oh, Artie…I love it.” She quickly turned and had me fasten the chain around her neck. “It’s all of us together. Thank you both so much.” She whispered quietly.

I went next because Artie wasn’t the kind of guy who wouldn’t let the ladies go first. Since the box he gave me was identical to the one he had presented to Brittany, I decided to open the one from Brittany first. Inside I found four different makeup bags, the first one had a picture of Elizabeth Taylor from way back in the day when she was young and gorgeous, the next one I pulled from the garment box had an artist rendering of the iconic Latin music artist Selena, God rest her soul, the next had Madonna voguing on it and the last was Prince in his ‘Purple Rain’ look. “These are so cool.” I muttered. “Where did you find them?”

“They were on a website I found. I got Maggie a onesie for the baby that has the pictures of The Golden Girls on it and says ‘Thank You For Being A Friend’.” She told us happily. “I wanted to get her some more, but I ran out of money…oh well. I have plenty of time to get her more. Lord Tubbington said that she doesn’t even realize that she is pregnant with your uncle and auntie yet anyway.”

“Aw…shit.” I groaned. I knew that there were many people who never would believe that Brittany’s over weight, catnip addicted cat was psychic…but both Artie and I knew better than to doubt the premonitions. Though we both thought that Brittany was just somewhat clairvoyant but preferred to say that the cat told her things rather than admitting to being able to do something very few people believed possible. “Your Aunt can be counted on to like feed and water the kid, right? Because I will kidnap him or her…”

Artie was slowly shaking his head. “San, she said uncle and auntie…not uncle or auntie. So…” he held up two fingers.

I took a deep breath. “What is with old people having multiple babies up in this piece?” I grumbled.

Brittany just patted my hand. “It’s okay, Tana, you don’t have to worry, Aunt Maggie is totally responsible. She can even cook now.” I guess that was as comforted as I was going to get.

So I turned my attention to the box Artie had given me. “Wow, King Arthur…you did good.” My necklace was slightly different from Brittany’s in that the blue topaz was on to the left of the diamond instead of the right and the metal setting was a darker silver than our girlfriends, though the chain was still the same bright white gold. Holding my own necklace I couldn’t help the wealth of warm feelings that infused me. I didn’t ask how he afforded the obviously expensive jewelry. He’d earned quite a bit from helping Chocolata and her sidekicks DorkBoy and the Amazing Pervert with their tracks. We all had. Hell that money had definitely come in handy as hell over the course of the semester, and especially when it came time to buy Christmas gifts. Though we New Directions had all agreed that we’d only buy gifts for our significant others cause there were too many of us to try and get for everybody. Artie helped me get the necklace on…I didn’t even care that it didn’t go with the dress, in that moment, I knew that it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever owned.

Artie took his turn at opening gifts last. Brittany and I had each given him small token gifts for each night of Chanukah, as appropriate…but we knew that these were our real holiday gifts to him. I always open Britts gifts first because she has no patience when it comes to seeing our reactions to what she has given us. Artie, however, was very determined to always show our equality in his heart. So he never, ever opened the same person’s gift first twice in a row. Now since Brittany’s was first on the last of the eight, not so crazy, nights…that meant that I was up first. Despite being together for well over a year and having given each other quite a few gifts during the previous seventeen months, I was still a little antsy to see what he thought of my gift. I’d found a site with cool tech gear that screamed ‘Artie Abrams’. I had gotten him a movie projector that was specially designed to work with smartphones and a bottle of cologne that I’d fallen in love with at the Barney’s counter when I was there with Cedes and Hummer looking for her outfit for the soundtrack drop party. Le Labo Vetiver 46 made my lady parts take notice in the damn bottle so I figured that with the fragrance’s exotic notes of lemongrass, olibanum, pepper, cedar and incense it would smell like the hotness on Artie.

“Whoa.” He breathed as he pulled the two boxes out of the gift bag. “Damn Santana…you trying to punk me out with feels in this restaurant.”

I nodded that was my primary reasoning, to show him how much I loved him through the judicious application of thoughtful, moderately expensive, gifts. “Yeah, well, I guess I love you and all that. So I got you good gifts you’d enjoy.”

“Oh, I’m definitely going to enjoy these. You’re gonna have me smelling like money, and we can now watch movies and shit in the bathroom too.” Artie said happily leaning over to give me a kiss. Yup, back in the day the way to a man’s heart may have been through his belly but now it’s through the ‘cool new tech’ gland most of them had developed in their ball sac. Brittany had realized that truth as well. She gave him a cool case that would hold up to thirty of his flash drives and even shield them from damage. When he opened it to look at the inside he found that she had also given him a cool sleek looking 128GB stick drive. With all his filming and editing and shit, Artie never had enough storage, even with his two 2TB externals. Brittany definitely knew our lover well. “The two of you love me so well.” He murmured just as the waitress arrived with the tiramisu we were planning to share.

After dinner we didn’t quite feel like going home yet. The night was young and so were we…but we also didn’t feel like going to the Club Excess holiday bash either. While we talked about whether we wanted to push our luck and get a room for a couple of hours, we drove past Lima’s dollar theatre. It used to be a real theater, back before ever movie theatre had to have IMAX, THX and everything else. Now it stayed open by having the best popcorn and whatever nostalgic movie they felt like running in addition to the new releases that had been pulled from normal theaters but hadn’t come out on DVD yet. When I saw the nostalgia movie listed on the big ass marquee, I damn near wrecked Mami’s car turning right from the center lane to get into the lot. For the next hour and forty-five minutes we laughed our asses off watching Cary Elwes showing the world that he was a much better Robin Hood than Kevin Costner.

“I cannot believe that I had never seen that movie before.” Artie laughed as we came out of the theatre. “It was every bit as awesome as ‘Princess Bride’.

“I liked the dad from ‘Good Luck Charlie’.” Brittany laughed. “He was funny. He had pretty nice legs too.”

Since we still had some time, before any of us…meaning Artie…were expected home, but not enough time to go get a decent hotel room, we decided to catch another cheap movie. The theater had a movie that we had meant to go see over the summer but never made it to, ‘This Is The End’ was hilarious and Hermione Granger in it reminded me of Mercedes for sure. She was hardcore. We made out a lot in the second movie of the night, a hell of a lot. So much so that it was hard as hell to say good night to them when I dropped them off. It had been a great date night though. Mama loved my necklace and tried to swipe my Elizabeth Taylor makeup bag…she was a fan from way back. But I knew that if she asked, Brittany would tell her where she could find one of her own.

Christmas day was really fucking blurry. We woke up around seven to exchange our family gifts. Since I knew that Papi was getting Mama a cruise for the next summer, I had gotten Mama two pair of awesome MARC by Marc Jacobs shades one in black and one in tortoise shell. They were supposedly designed to work best with heart shaped faces like Mama had. They were accompanied by a monogrammed jewelry travel clutch with a cushioned interior and a new set of luggage tags. My gift would give away too much information for Papi’s to still be a surprise, but no way was I going to follow a two week Caribbean cruise on the Oceania Nautica, which was going to be completely remodeled before their trip. Plus it was a cruise that was designed for people who shared my parent’s lifestyle. Not that I was supposed to know that, but Papi had been telling Tio Eduardo all about the gift at Thanksgiving and I had overheard a lot more than I really wanted to know. But still it was going to set Mama over the moon, so I made sure that she opened mine first.

Mama loved my gift, she was a big fan of glamorous shades and sunglasses. But it was clear that she was a little confused. Usually I gave her something more personal. The year before I had paid the sitting fee for us to have a family portrait made. She’d cried when she opened the box and read the words in the picture frame. For me to give her shades and a little tote…that was strange as hell. Papi capitalized on her confusion to pull a huge ass box from behind the tree. Mama clapped her hands like a toddler getting ice cream. Like she always did, she ripped through the wrapping paper like it was tissue and found that he had gotten her a four piece set of Rimowa North America, Salsa Air Pearl Rose Hardside Luggage. When she was giggling over the wheeled suitcases, Daddy handed her another wrapped box. Inside that one was a MARC by Marc Jacobs, Crosby quilted denim backpack, designed to look like clouds floating over the Pacific Ocean. He made her open that and in the backpack she found a shiny folder which contained all the information about their trip. The squeal that my mother let loose was so loud and high pitched that there were dogs all around the neighborhood whose poor ears were bleeding. Given the fact that she had just received around four grand in gifts, not including the cruise itself…the squealing was a pretty appropriate reaction.

“I figured that since our Pequeña Niña Diablo is spending next summer touring with KAMA,” he said with a chuckle. I looked up quickly…I didn’t know that shit. “We could finally go on a real honeymoon…like we never could have afforded when we first got married.”

“Oh, Santiago…you beautiful man.” She breathed reading through the paperwork. “You spent too much…the penthouse suite…it is so big. Eighteen days, from San Francisco to New York, around Mexico and Central America…through the Panama Canal and up through the Caribbean stopping in Charleston before sailing up to New York. Oh Santi…It’s a dream come true.”

I let them bask until things started to take a decidedly R-rated turn. “Papi, Mama? Hey…adult type parental units…I’m still sitting right here. What was that about touring with Commune?”

They finally separated and I ignored Mama pulling her hand out of Papi’s pajama pants. Papi looked over at me sternly. “You cannot breathe a word of this to Mercedes and her boys. They know only the barest beginnings of what we are about to tell you. Starting in May after you guys finish school for the year, KAMA will be going around the country to music festivals. Mr. Cohen and Ms. Jergens called us to ask us and the Pierces to allow you and Brittany to accompany them. You as one of their background singers, and Brittany as one of their dancers. They were contacting Roger Abrams too because they are hoping that Artie will be able to go along and act as their social media videographer.”

Mama smiled as I started to freak the fuck out. “Now, don’t get too happy…it will be hard work and long hours of forced togetherness. But the experience alone will be without parallel. Besides, this summer will give you the chance to know if you really want to pursue the same type of career as your friends, while there is still plenty of time to change your major before your sophomore year.”

“And to be honest the amount they are offering you for the summer of work is more than some people make in an entire year.” Papi said with a smirk.

I’m not going to lie. I was happy as hell. The news they had given me meant that I would not only be able to spend most of the summer earning beaucoups of money, but I would be doing it chilling with my boos and some of our friends and I was even going to get a chance to see parts of the country I’ve never seen. It was really cool. “That’s pretty straight.” I finally told them after picking my jaw up off the floor.

“There may or may not be more news, but we weren’t supposed to tell you that…though, when you open your gift, you’d have probably figured out that you were going to be doing quite a bit of traveling.” Mama teased. She reached under the tree and pulled out a bunch of boxes all inside a bigger box. Mama’s favorite way to avoid making us climb around under the tree to get at a million little boxes. “These are from me…your padre, did his own shopping this year.”

I laughed but I was hella-touched. Papi always let Mama handle the shopping. He barely picked his own clothes in the mornings. The first thing I opened was a patent leather cosmetics bag that was already filled. “Now that isn’t makeup in there. It is an emergency kit. There is a little first aid kit inside it as well as travel packets of DayQuil, NyQuil, Benadryl and an epi-pen. You’re going places you’ve never been before. Being exposed to tons of new plants and foods could bring up allergies that we don’t know about. Oh and Tums too, again just in case. It also has things like different sizes of safety pins, Woolite wipe, Tide pen, a small nail file, a couple of hair ties and bobby pins. Just things that you might need in a pinch when you’re traveling.” The next box contained three small personal external battery chargers one red, one bright pink and one in a pretty metallic green. I opened the next one and found a weird roll of silk. “That’s called a Cocoon Silk Mummy Liner. It’s for those less than clean hotel rooms.”

“Oh please, I want to see them try and put Mercedes Antoinette Jones in a less than clean hotel room. She is co fastidious, she’s the only one who understood why Pillsbury cleaned half the stuff she felt the need to wipe down.” We all shared a laugh at the thought of the berrinche that Wheezy would through if they tried to make her stay anywhere that was rigorously and meticulously cleaned.

“Well better to have and not need than to need and not have.” Mama reasoned. I opened the next box and found a great oatmeal colored crochet tote bag and the following one contained two microfiber towel sets. “The backpacker’s website said these were a must have. And I know that you aren’t exactly backpacking, but it was the closest thing to advice on what you would need for running around the country in a tour bus.” The next box was larger and Mama called it the ‘comfort box’. It contained a cool neck pillow, two sleep masks; one thicker and darker than the other, some Bose noise canceling headphones, a large bottle of Shiseido Ultimate Sun Protection Lotion with SPF 50 and a philosophy summer grace bath and body care gift set...the full sized one. By the time I finished unwrapping everything I had uncovered a REI ‘daytrip’ backpack, a red multi-zippered pouch that Mama assured me was an organizer for all my carry on necessities, three new pairs of my favorite orthopedic ‘dressing down’ flip flops. Dad handed me a box and I opened it quickly. He had gotten me an entire selection of pepper spray key chains, a self defense whistle, and three different types of knives. He also gave me a new credit card that I wasn’t to touch until we were on the trip, gift cards to Target, Sprawl-Mart and one that could be spent at any Simon’s Mall, and a cool digital camera for taking tons of pictures. As I was putting things inside the bags to carry them up to my room, I found a bunch of gift cards in the tote that Mama said I could use to get a spring wardrobe for school. I also found cash hidden in more than a few spots in the travel stuff but I decided that that was slated to be emergency money, so I left it all in the hidden pockets I had found it in and I could save it for the tour.

I didn’t tell anyone…not even Art-Man or Britt-Brat, but on the day after Christmas, I texted Moobs and made him meet me in the park. He and I needed to have a one on one discussion as to the real reasons for his self-destructive choices. I parked the car and headed to the swings. I liked the swings…they always made me feel as if I were flying. That was where Finn found me a couple of minutes later. “Hey Santana.” He said cautiously.

“Oh don’t look so scared. I’m not gonna beat your ass…actually keep looking at me like a frightened deer, it gives me a happy.” I taunted.

Finn smiled. “I’m glad that you aren’t still mad at me.”

“I never said I wasn’t still mad at you. You hurt my friends, Finnessa. You hurt Lauren and you hurt yourself. I never let people get away with hurting my friends. So we need to find some way for me to feel like you have paid and learned your lesson…and some way to make sure that it is never going to happen again. So lay it all out for me. I’ve heard your side of the story, third hand, give it to me straight from the source.”

God the rambling explanation worked my nerves over. Finally I had to shut him down. “Finn…you are not that stupid…you just played it on TV. You’ve known me and Quinn too long to have let that chick dick you in the game like that. Shit, didn’t Berry play that will ‘he cheat shit’ back in the day? I will give the broad props since she was smart enough to have someone else take the blame the next morning. But she evidently didn’t do her research. Trying that shit on the man of someone like Lauren could have, and once upon a time, would have ended up with her in traction.”

“No, Lauren is like Mercedes…she’s scary when she has to be but when things hurt her really bad…they…they try and keep you from knowing that you hurt them by like shutting down and going cold. Now…that’s not how they are with everyone. If you are just another idiot on the street, they will put you on blast in a heartbeat…but if you really matter to them, if you really have the power to hurt them…then they try to hid it and it was hard knowing that I had hurt her so bad, Santana.” He took a few hitching breaths. “And all our friends, well not you or Tina, but they were trying so hard not to take sides…well not for real. I know it is crazy but it would have felt so much better if you had come home at Thanksgiving and beat me up. I would have felt better.”

Yeah, he would have felt better because in his mind he would have gotten the punishment he deserved. “Finn, it wasn’t up to us to make you feel better. We were busy making sure that Lauren was okay. Think about it…you had Kurt to turn to. Lauren is an only child. She didn’t have a brother she could call because while Vince is cool and all…he is also community property in your relationship. You pulled a boneheaded move and yeah, she was very, very hurt. Because while you didn’t actually cheat on her; you put yourself in a position where she had to question you and your commitment to her and her decision to trust you.”

“I know.” He whispered plaintively. “But what do I do to fix it? My therapist and Kurt and Burt…and even Mom they say that I have to figure that out on my own for it to mean anything. I’ve been trying to figure it out for two months, but everything I think I need to do…isn’t enough.”

“So walk me through it. What have you done to fix this mess?” I asked him. I actually wanted to help goofy old Puffy Nipples. Especially since it seemed like everyone else in his life was greatly overestimating his very limited intelligence.

He catalogued the changes he had begun to make in an effort to be the man he needed to be to get back with Large Marge. He had taken the step back Lauren had needed to find peace and given her space and time. He was getting counseling and getting his head right so he could understand himself better. There was no such thing as a good relationship when you were always counting on the other person to make you happy. He truly understood Lauren’s point of view and was sincerely apologetic. Those were definitely steps in the right direction. He had promised, and assured all of us that it was a promise he was going to keep, to abstain from all alcohol and drugs. Which was a fucking necessity for Finn Hudson. Addictive Personality Disorder was genetic and that shit was a real bitch. He was making sure that he kept any promises that he made.

“Alright…all of that sounds great…but have you confronted the chick that set you up. L-Boogey said that it’s all over your campus that she is still after your ass.”

Finn nodded. “Every time she tries something, I tell her that I’m not interested.”

I shook my head. “No… you need to channel your inner asshole. I know that you’re all reformed now that you aren’t under the fucking disgusting influence of ManHands…but the thing about being an asshole or being a bitch is that as long as you’re only one to people who really deserve it, you’re not a bad person. This broad…she isn’t going to get the point until she gets the point…and every time you aren’t putting that trick in her place…she is disrespecting Lauren and by no speaking out…you are letting her. You want your Ma’am back, then next time that chick steps to you, don’t just turn her down…PUT her down. Let her know that you have a woman that you love and that you don’t want her.”

“How?” he groaned in pure frustration. “Because I thought that I was already doing that.”

See that is exactly why everybody needs an Auntie Snixx. “Okay, so since this chick is trying to glom onto you now that you’re making your way from the reserve roster to the starting line, chances are good that she figures that she’s going to hitch her ass to a rising star football player and follow his ass into the good life courtesy of the NFL.”

“But I never said I was trying to go to the NFL. I just play because I like it and they are helping me pay for college.” He interrupted to voice his confusion.

I rolled my eyes. “I know that, you know that, but that dumb chick has no idea who you are…just what she thinks is going to happen. Now may I continue?” I waited until he pantomimed zipping his lips and tossing away the key. “Alright. So what you are going to do is the next time the broad comes on to you and there will be a next time because you haven’t crushed her under your thumb.” Another eye roll may have been inserted there. “Just be like ‘Look Broad, no I don’t know your name because I find you that unimportant in the grand scheme of life. So Broad…I get it…You want to get with me because you’ve obviously come to college with the plan that you’re going to try and get an MRS degree. You want me because you think that I’m going places…which I clearly am…but not with your tired, skanky ass. But I have a woman who means everything to me. I cannot count all the different ways she is better than you but the first one that comes to mind is that she doesn’t want to be a damn trophy on my arm…she is doing her shit so that she can have her own. We’re gonna be a sports power couple while you’re probably gonna end up making porn out ‘in the beautiful San Fernando Valley’. Now you can take my words as a challenge and come back to let me make a fool of you on the regular…which you probably will because let’s face it…you’re an idiot…or you can listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth and use them as an inspiration. You can go to classes to learn not just to be seen. You can find your ovaries and become a real woman rather than a pathetic little girl playing at being a woman.’ Now at that point you just stand there with your arms folded over your chest and give her that look Schue used to give Jazz Hands and Sexual Chocolate when they wouldn’t just roll over and let Ratchet dick them out of all the solos.”

We spent the next hour practicing that shit to make sure he had it down and memorized. Then I let him go, but he knew that I would be quizzing his ass whenever I felt like it. A couple of days later the call went out for a shopping trip to get L-Boogey something cool to wear to the big ass family gathering the parents were having that Saturday. I made sure to use a little positive reinforcement to make sure that Finn would remember exactly why he had to go hard on the chick trying to keep him separated from the woman he loved. We had a blast at the party and everyone was able to find out the skinny on everyone else’s real feelings about their classes and schools. Our grades were on point so the parents were all happy…and we were cool. I ate too much though, so I did a hell of a lot of dancing to work that shit off.

Before I knew it, it was New Year’s Eve. Artie, Britts and I celebrated it in Artie’s room at his parent’s house. Mama and Papi had forced Gwen and Roger to go to Chicago with them to do things up big. I swear, I will never fully understand how it is that Artie can be under us for the most part and even when he bans toys, we still end up walking funny. He’s an incredibly gifted lover. Thankfully Britts was back in fighting trim when Marko got to Lima. She had a blast he taught her and Mike, and then they taught the rest of us all these cool ballroom dances for the ‘ColorBlind’ video. There wasn’t much dancing in ‘The Fighter’ video. I never knew that doing video shoots was so tiring. But I was learning more and more about the industry. I learned a lot of shit about the Victorian and Regency eras in England and Europe. If I had an European history class I was straight. And I got to see Finnocence and smack him for being so nice to the idiota who had hurt El-Gigante…but I guess he was better off not regressing too much into asshole territory. If he got too far in he may never have come back out. Besides, I’d had the DJ of the college station play Nicki Minaj’s ‘Stupid Ho’ three times during his shift and each of them were dedicated to the heffa, so I felt vindicated.

Going back to Harlem was the hardest and easiest goodbye ever. We were just getting into the swing of things when we got the worse news I have ever in my life received. I…I couldn’t breathe, my chest hurt…then there was no news and waiting. Trying to get through classes where we could pretend he was just at school in class himself. It was torturous. Nothing made sense. Nothing was right…nothing mattered. Until finally it did.


	4. To Be a Light (Dan Nichols and E18hteen)/Let it Snow (The Temptations)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories
> 
> Special thanks to Isis Aurora Tomoe & Jaz Mitch who have been Beta rock stars for my Christmas story
> 
> Casting Call: Jeff Goldblum as Hiram Berry  
> Tony Todd as Antwan Berry

To Be a Light (Dan Nichols and E18hteen)   
Hiram Berry PoV

Most parents look at the first winter break after their child goes to college as a time of joyous homecoming. A chance to see for themselves, with their own eyes, that the child they released from their nest was hale, whole and hardy. That they had done their job and raised their child well. Antwan and I felt none of that. Oh, we wanted to make sure that Rachel was well; that she had made it through her semester unharmed and at least happy by her own definition of the term. But the truth of the matter was that we desperately wanted to see some sign that the compassion we’d always tried to instill in her by lecture and by example had taken root somewhere in her fractured psyche. We ached to see a real smile on her face, one that reached her eyes and pushed away all the calculation and manipulation we usually saw there brewing just under the surface. We wanted to hear how her classes were going, how she felt about her professors, how she felt about how her finals…We wanted her to at least pretend to care what had gone on at home while she was away.

But as I stood there in the James M. Cox Dayton International Airport that Thursday morning, watching Rachel stalk towards me in an outfit that I’d never seen before, certainly not anything she could afford on the stipend we sent her each month, her face a study in barely tamped rage and anger, I knew that all of my and my husband’s hopes and dreams for this vacation were going to be unrealized. Oh she gave it more effort than I expected. Hugging me tightly when we reached each other in the crowded terminal, but she blathered on about her meeting the evening before with her former friends at NYADA’s Winter Showcase, rather than asking about the absence of her other father. She, seemingly, was unconcerned with the shit storm she had created for her father and her friends. I helped her gather her luggage and we made our way to the car.

I waited until we were on the highway heading to Lima to broach the subject. “Your father wanted to be here to pick you up with me…he has really missed you. But he had to stay at the firm most of the night the last few nights trying to contain the fallout from the release of his client’s personal and private video.”

She threw me an innocent smile. “It couldn’t have been too private. They sent it to me.”

Antwan had told me exactly how Rachel had gotten her hands on the video in order to be able to profiteer off her friends’ joy. “Rachel, even with the rather skewed view you have of the world. You have to know that you were wrong to sell that video. You do know that, don’t you?”

“How was I wrong Daddy? It was going to get out that they were trying to formalize the abomination that is their so called relationship. I may as well have profited from it, someone was going to.” She defended nonchalantly.

I shook my head. “Rachel, their relationship is none of your business. You only received the video because at one time Mercedes considered you her friend and her hairstylist didn’t realize that that had changed. That you have proven to her that you are not her friend at all.”

Rachel gave me a chilling look. “Why do you and Dad never take my side? Dad I guess I can understand, he only adopted me but you…I’m your child and you still never side with me.”

My spine stiffened as my anger surged so strongly I had to fight against a red haze. “First of all Antwan is just as much your father as I am, Little Girl. If you think otherwise then you are twice as crazy as we thought. It was Antwan that held you in his arms and rocked you to sleep night after colicky night. It was Antwan that taught you to walk. Antwan that took a beating from the KKK like minded yokels in this town for daring to take you to get ice cream after your pediatrician said you were finally old enough to have it. Antwan that put his body between you and all of their fists and kicks. Antwan who got a grade two concussion, a bruised spine and pissed blood for eleven days, but wouldn’t let go of you until I got there so he knew that you would be safe. He wouldn’t even be seen by the EMTs until he was sure that you, HIS child no matter what the color of your goddamn skin, was okay and hadn’t been touched. So don’t you sit there after benefitting from him raising you and taking care of you and catering to your every fucking whim for the last nineteen years and try to down play his place or role in your life!” My hands shook so badly I had to grip the steering with both of them to keep from wrecking or worse reaching over and throttling my own child. “Second of all, Rachel how the hell can we take your side when you are wrong? You are not a victim of your friends…former friends…you have used and victimized them.”

She looked completely and totally flabbergasted. “How on earth have I victimized them? In the last two years they have stolen my solos, they have stolen my places at NYADA and Juilliard. Mercedes’ greed saw to it that I ended high school without a significant love interest and totally friendless.”

I cut her off. “How?” I asked bluntly. “How did either Mercedes or Kurt impact the decisions made by people they never met before they auditioned…just like you? How did they steal solos in a glee club you were all members of? Why were all the solos somehow your right?” her mouth worked as she frantically tried to formulate an answer. “They didn’t, Rachel. Please remember that both your dad and I as well as Shelby were there for your NYADA audition. You choked. You got up there and you forgot the lyrics and you choked. Kurt didn’t even sing the same day that you did and Mercedes never even auditioned for NYADA. Shelby looked into your Juilliard audition for us. And let me just tell you that she looked into this for Twan and I long before you even hinted at the fact that you had washed out before the last day. In point of fact, you never did hint that you hadn’t made it through the entire audition process. You weren’t as well prepared as you could have been. You did the same song twice and you allowed your own prejudices to convince you that songs you didn’t consider important wouldn’t be asked for. Mercedes and Kurt just did their best…they worked together and they were well prepared. If you hadn’t let your own need to have everything to the exclusion to everyone else, you’d have still been their friend and you’d have benefited from working together with them.”

“There was nothing they could have done to help me. They are less talented than I am. What on earth could they have possibly taught me?” She snarled.

I rolled my eyes. “How to play well with others. Your Dad and I sheltered and coddled you. We allowed you far too much control of our home and relationship. We allowed you to remain an only child, which only exacerbated your mental illness. You have no concept of how to be a team player, of how to be in an ensemble. You are going to have to learn if you want to be a cast member if you ever want to be a star.”

“Barbra’s first Broadway role was a lead.” She scoffed.

I sighed. “Barbra got her start as a recording artist before she appeared on Broadway. She didn’t have to work her way up from the cast because she was already a Grammy award winning pop singer. You are currently a student. You are in New York to learn your craft. Then you will need to pay your dues. Only after working your way up through the chorus to the cast to the lead will you really know success. Patti Lupone toured for three years as part of an acting company before she got her first Broadway role. Even then it was a featured role not the lead. You want everything handed to you, but haven’t shown that you are actually ready to work for it.”

“What are you talking about? I have taken classes my whole life. I have danced and sang and studied all in preparation for Broadway.” Rachel defended staunchly.

“Rachel, remember when you were ten and you begged us to let you go to that performing arts camp? What happened when Karen Kay Cody was giving classes in Head Voice?”

Rachel muttered. “I stopped going after she kept saying that I was singing through my nose and head voice didn’t mean using my head to sing.”

“Exactly, you disagreed with her critique so you refused to attend any further classes and to this day your higher register notes go thin and reedy when you sing. And you are limited to a two octave range. You don’t mind hard work but you refuse to put in work. You feel that you are the best there ever is, was or will be, so rather than put in the work to make yourself better, you say there is something wrong with your instructors and drop them rather than being humble and learning from them.” I chided.

“I am the best. You have always said so.” She grumbled.

“Looking back, knowing about your diagnosis, there are a hundred things I wish Antwan and I had done differently when raising you. Rachel, yes, you were an amazing little girl. Our little miracle. But Rachel every parent feels that way about their child. You weren’t special, at least no more so than any other child…you were just special to us. You are no greater, no less, no better, and no worse than anyone else in this world. But you view the rest of the world as if you were our queen and we just the lowliest of peasants. And yet…We tried to teach you to respect everyone around you, but you barely seem to actually respect yourself. And before you start, the bravado and over confidence you have in your talent is not the same thing as respecting yourself. If you really respected yourself, you wouldn’t have such disdain and disregard for your Dad and I. You wouldn’t be brokering yourself and your talent to constantly get the best deal; be it for accolades or applause or solos or boyfriends. If you respected yourself…you would treat others with respect. Despite watching and hearing the words that came from both Antwan and myself you never learned that persistence and tenacity must be tempered by humility and deliberate, dedicated work towards improving yourself.”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re repeating yourself Dad.”

I could feel myself start grinding my teeth. “Rachel, stow the attitude. If you can fake being our loving, caring daughter for the last nineteen years, you might want to continue to fake it at least until you graduate college.” I warned.

“I do love you. Both of you. I just, I have a dream Daddy. I know that I am meant for greatness.” 

“And I’m sure that Ted Bundy and John Hinkley, Jr. both felt the same way. You share a psychological condition with both of them and Mohammed Merah, Brian Blackwell, and Brian David Mitchell…all of them felt that their ends…proving to the world that they were greater than anyone else… justified any numbers of rapes, thefts and murders.” I told her seriously. “You need to take your condition as seriously as the rest of us do. Dr. Watson’s office never received a request for your records and neither has Twin Valley. Which tells us that you are not getting the help you need.”

“Dr. Watson took care of that right before the break. She called me three days ago with the name and phone number of one of her colleagues. A Dr. Seaman…her offices are not too far from campus. I’ll be meeting with her twice a week…as soon as I am settled into the new semester.” She hedged.

“I’ll get her contact information and get your appointments set up as soon as your second semester schedule is posted.” I said sternly. If we let her Rachel would say she wasn’t settled into the new semester until after spring break. “And you have an appointment with Dr. Watson on the thirtieth.”

The rest of the ride was silent as she pouted petulantly in the seat next to me. At our home, I helped Rachel get her things up to her room. While she showered and got comfortable, I cooked dinner...carefully following the guidelines set forth by the nutritionist at Twin Valley. I prepared chia crusted salmon, a grilled bok choy and kale salad, and roasted root vegetables comprised of carrots, butternut squash and sweet potatoes. Antwan came in just as I was taking the root vegetables from the oven. “Dinner smells delicious. How is Rachel?” he asked, excitedly looking towards the stairs.

“She is a little unhappy with me. But other than that, she is fine.” I assured him. Walking over, I let him pull me into his embrace. It had been a very long time since I’d pulled to a rushed stop outside Friendly’s ice cream parlor and seen him hunched protectively over our daughter, his clothing torn, bloodied from his head wound and the flesh of his back and sides that had split under the kicks and punches of those assholes who’d thought that he had kidnapped a child who was rightfully and legally his. But Rachel’s dress hadn’t even been stained. He had protected her so carefully. It had been years…and yet not enough time had passed to truly dull the horror and fear and anger. But as always, Antwan’s hug calmed me and settled my nerves.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked quietly.

I nodded. “Rachel said something that pissed me off. I told her about that day outside Friendly’s and I guess it brought it all back…live and in technicolor.”

“I’m fine, Rachel’s fine and it was seventeen years ago.” He soothed. “We’re all still here. They couldn’t change it then and they cannot change it now.”

I nodded again, hugging him tightly to me before letting go so that I could serve our dinner. Rachel came rushing in like a dervish and she two hugged him tightly. “I missed you Dad.” She whispered with what sounded like true sincerity. No…she whispered it sincerely. I am sure of that.

Over dinner she told us all about her new friends and her new classes and her boyfriend Brody. We listened in rapt attention, but as she talked about the boyfriend, Antwan looked uncomfortable. “Just, don’t let him push you into anything that you know is wrong, Rachel. He sounds very ‘experienced’. Guys like that can easily lead you into trouble and you don’t realize it until far too late.”

“Oh Dad, Brody is perfectly harmless. If I didn’t know better, I’d almost think that he was gay.” She assured him.

After dinner, we pulled Rachel to the living room and sat her down. Dr. Watson had advised that, though we thought it was sort of ambushing her when she’d just gotten home, we should tell Rachel as soon as we could about our wanting to have another child or two so that she would be unable to claim that we’d hidden it from her. Once we were all settled, Antwan and I closer than ever on the loveseat and Rachel in the Lazy-boy recliner that she had picked out when we redecorated four years ago, Antwan broached the subject. “Rachel, remember when you were five and we asked you if you would like a baby brother or sister?”

“Yes. I said no and that was the end of that. Three years later Noah received a younger sister and I was even more sure that I didn’t want one. Though I suppose technically, Noah was partly responsible for me having one, of a sort, anyway.” she said calmly. “Why are you bringing that back up?”

My husband and I exchanged sharp looks. “Earlier, in the car, I said that we gave you too much control. That was one of the ways we allowed you to overrule something that both Antwan and I desperately wanted. We never only wanted to have only one child. But because you were so against it and our schedule was so full dealing with all of your classes and other commitments, we didn’t pursue it…at least not back then.”

“I take it that you intend to pursue having another child. Don’t you think that you are too old at this point?” She asked looking slightly aghast. “Why not just look into adoption like Shelby did? Though, I would suggest an older child. Maybe one that has already been potty trained and can be easily taught not to enter my room.”

“Rachel, you are once again trying to control a situation that is not yours to control.” Antwan said reasonably. “We were simply sharing with our eldest child that we are beginning the process of having more children.”

“So I have no input on the going ons and happenings in my own family.” She shook her head. “That hardly seems reasonable or fair.”

I forced myself to hold back any sighing or eye rolling. “Rachel, while we love you and you may always express your opinions, you must realize that no single opinion outweighs any other. Your father and I are the parents and you are our child. There are decisions that while they have some impact on your life and on our family overall, they are ours to make. You will just have to learn to adjust as the world around you changes.”

“But I am not a child. I am nineteen years old.” She said indignantly. “I am legally an adult.”

“Yes, legally you are old enough to vote or to enlist or to sign most major contracts. But you are still in college. You are still listed as a dependent on our taxes and our insurance. You are still dependent on us for tuition, housing, clothing, food and everything else. Therefore you are still our child and thus have to love within our rules. I do understand your confusion. For a very long time our household was basically upside down. Despite the fact that we are your parents, you set all the rules. The fact that we allowed it only exacerbated a condition you were genetically destined to be burdened with. For that we do solemnly apologize. We are not sorry, because it was done with the absolute best of intentions. But we do regret the problems that lack of discipline, boundaries and correct family structure have caused you. You never learned how to respect authority because you’ve never had an experience where you didn’t feel as if you were the authority. Now, we know better and that has to change. We will work through adapting to the changes together. But the changes will happen.” Antwan explained reasonably. His voice was calm and assured the entire time. His tone telling her that there would be no argument.

She gave us a wry look. “I suppose a baby brother wouldn’t be so bad. Will you be looking into surrogacy again?”

“Yes.” I answered with a smile. “We haven’t gotten into the process yet. We wanted to tell you of our decision first.”

The smile on her face this time was actually genuine. “You know, I was reading an advertisement for egg donors on campus. You can pick them pretty much the same way women pick sperm donors, height, weight and intelligence levels and everything. You should make sure that the one you pick is very talented.”

“So, what do you want to do while you’re on break?” Antwan smiled after he took her hand and squeezed it gently. We spent the rest of the night chatting and planning and even had a sing-a-long, it felt like the old days before all the drama and the tribulations. I had missed my little girl no matter how much trouble she had caused.

Let It Snow (The Temptations)  
Antwan PoV

Hiram and I had waited on Rachel’s arrival to do any Christmas decorating. Since we did Chanukah pretty big, we really only gave Christmas a nod and a half. We did the tree decorating and we had Christmas dinner together, but the Berry family’s major gift giving had happened weeks earlier. We just gave each other one nice gift to open on Christmas morning. As usual, I gave Hiram a full VIP subscription to the Columbus Opera for the two of us. Rachel gave him a truly lovely Lovat & Green diamond patterned scarf. He gave our daughter a pretty red Guess double breasted boucle coat and me a Bonastre double handle slim briefcase. They were the perfect gifts, fashionable and functional and it filled a need. I had done something similar for Rachel and gotten her a Coach ‘Turnlock Tie’ brown leather tote. Her gift to me was a Nixon Sentry 38 black leather watch. We were all very happy with our Christmas gifts and had a wonderful and enjoyable day.

When I wasn’t home spending time with my family, I was teleconferencing with Ethan Harris and Sandy Cohen working on angles of attack to get Hannity and Limbaugh to at the very least issue a retraction. I waited until the Saturday after Christmas to speak with Rachel about the tape. I took her to lunch so that we could have some time alone. “Rachel, I have put this off as long as I could. Mercedes, Sam and Noah; under the advice of their parents and legal team; are going after Hannity and Limbaugh for slander and after TMZ for intrusion on seclusion. TMZ may well force them to pull you in as a party to the suit because ultimately you are the one who sold them the footage.”

She shook her head. “No they wouldn’t otherwise no one would ever sell them anything again. If they aren’t willing to protect their sources, then they would quickly lose out to the other tabloid journalist sites and magazines on future photos, videos and even just basic leads.” My daughter returned with a confident grin.

“That is true, but they can always defend their actions because you exposed your own culpability. You did something petty and vengeful and Rachel, if it comes down to it; your father and I have discussed it. I’m going to let you face the consequences of your decisions and actions.”

“What does that mean?” she seemed so very confused. In that instant I realized that she really had never faced dealing with the fallout from her bad behavior.

“That means that I will recuse myself from the trial and your father and I will help you get an attorney, but I will not in any way compromise the Jones, Evans, Puckerman lawsuit for you nor will I ask them for any leniency on your behalf.”

“But-But-but…” she stammered.

I shook my head solemnly. “Rachel, have you heard the term helicopter parents? It refers to those parents who hover so diligently over their children that those kids often cannot function as adults. That’s how Hiram and I behaved with you. We hovered so carefully around you that you never realized one of the most basic tenets of life. Newton’s Third Law doesn’t just apply to physics. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every decision you make for every action you take there are consequences. Some are as light and simple as missing your bus or connecting flight. Some are as dire as losing years of your life or hundreds of thousands of dollars because you didn’t make a wise choice or because your actions hurt someone else. Hiram and I we are working very hard to learn from our mistakes. This is one time that we are going to have to step back and let you feel the true sting of consequences.”

“I don’t understand why everything has to change.” She sounded very bewildered.

“Rache…life is change. The only thing that is truly constant in life is the fact that things change. Control is an illusion only truly believed by the delusional. You cannot control others, you can only truly chose your own actions. But then you have the responsibility of dealing with other’s reactions.” I quietly explained. “If we could really control life, I would have made it so that my parents and family stood by me when I came out. I would have made it so that when we selected Shelby as our surrogate, you were part of me so that you wouldn’t have NPD. Rachel, when you realize that the only person you can be responsible for is yourself and any children you may have, and them only to a certain point, you may realize that you have only one major responsibility; to be part of the positive change in this world. If you are not part of it, you are actively or passively fighting against it.”

For a moment, I truly thought I was reaching her. That she understood what I was saying. But it wasn’t meant to be. “I understand that I cannot control anyone else’s reactions to my choices and decisions. But I still do not understand why everyone else seems to be getting everything that I deserve.”

“Rachel, stop and think for a moment. You have faith in the Lord, in Yahweh. Maybe you should have faith that Mercedes and her friends are getting what He means for them to have and you too, when you live by His laws and allow Him to guide your choices, will get what He wants you to have.” I tried one final time to get her to change her ways. She had to stop looking at other’s successes as if they diminished what could ultimately be hers. Otherwise she would continue making the worst choices possible in every situation. “One last thing and I will leave you alone with your thoughts. Your GPA for the semester was only a two point seven five. You are going to have to work a lot harder if you want to make it to your sophomore year. Colleges will not continue to allow you admittance if your grades sink too low, usually not if they are less than a two point zero. Start spending less time plotting and dating and more time getting your grades up.”

The rest of her break went much the way the last month of her summer breakdown had gone, she met with Dr. Watson twice a week by herself and once a week we met all together as a family. She worked on the projects she needed to have ready upon her return to campus and she spent time with each of us. She did poke her head into a few of her old instructors, but thankfully she stayed away from the high school. Between Hiram and myself, and her appointments with Dr. Watson, we managed to keep her away from the video filming. The last thing she needed was a full psychotic break or another legally actionable offense. She flew back to New York on the third Friday of January to prepare herself for the classes that started that following Tuesday.

The first day of classes at Tisch, Hiram and I were in Columbus with Carrie, one of the Family Law lawyers from the small firm I was a part of in Lima. We were meeting with the staff of Compassionate Beginnings, a surrogacy firm that handled egg donation as well as insemination of the surrogate. “My clients are looking to divide the possibility of having things go wrong once the baby or babies have arrived. They would like to utilize the services of an anonymous egg donor and a separate gestational surrogate. Both the egg donor and the gestational surrogate would need to sign a separate contract, other than the one they signed when they were accepted into your agency that further protects my clients from a legal fight once the baby or babies have been born.” Carrie got straight to the point.

“Our legal team would need to look over any such contract, however as long as it does not cause any conflicts with ours, that shouldn’t be a problem.” Barbara Greer, the Compassionate Beginnings’ representative said kindly.

“What is needed to begin the process?” I asked her. Many of my other questions had been answered by the packet of materials they had emailed us when we set up the appointment.

“The average cost of donor fees and costs ranges from thirty-seven thousand to sixty-five thousand. We have some of the lowest in the nation at thirty-eight thousand five hundred dollars. However to begin the process the up-front fee is one third of that amount. The cost of gestational surrogates are slightly lower than those of traditional surrogacy, however they still start at around ninety-eight to a hundred thousand dollars and can exceed a hundred and fifty thousand. Again to start the process you will need to pay a third of our fee assessment, which we do not ask you to do until you have selected your surrogate. The rest will need to be put into an escrow account here at Compassionate Beginnings within ninety days of the successful implantation of the embryos.”

The fees alone were truly daunting. Especially considering that we had a daughter attending college in one of the most expensive cities on the entire globe. However, my normal sticker shock was tempered by the fact that I was currently in a better position career wise than I had ever hoped or dreamed of being even at my age. I was working as counsel for an up an coming young music group who had just earned a very, very, very large first royalty check and had decided among themselves and without asking of any of us that each of their two lawyers of record, myself and Ethan Harris and their accountant would get five percent of their profits. My pretax portion had come to a very lovely amount. A portion of which was being used to facilitate our surrogacy journey. Hiram had even put his foot down and said that other than regular household expenses for our Lima home, not a penny of the money I made from helping our friends’ children would be spent on our eldest child since she had caused them so much trouble. I made the vow, and other than paying off the home equity loan we had taken to get her apartment set up and furnished, I had kept to it stringently. Given Hiram’s salary as a senior financial advisor for Metonote, an international corporation, with that bill gone, we probably could have afforded to begin the process anyway within six or seven months of careful saving. “We have made the necessary arrangements to handle all the fees associated with this process. What do we need to do to begin today?”

Ms. Greer nodded. “Since you completed your registration prior to setting this appointment, you have submitted an affidavit stating that you have received the required counseling on the psychological impact of this journey…the first step will be to talk about what you are looking for first and foremost in your egg donor.”

Hiram nodded and launched into our list. “Antwan will be providing the male gamete because we have found a genetic anomaly in my DNA that we’d rather not risk having it pop up again. One child with NPD is more than enough for any family.” Despite the fact that I was not a biological parent, the doctors at Twin Valley had asked me to contribute my blood for a DNA workup as well just to add more information to their database, so we knew that I was without any genetic precursors for any of the psychological disorders and only a carrier for the sickle cell trait. “We would like the egg donor to be Caucasian or of Jewish descent.” He shot me a look knowing that I liked to tease him by saying that Jewish was really just another version of white, “Latin or Asian women would be our next choices, we’d prefer white or Jewish just because the child or children will look more as if they really were genetically both of ours. Height is not a factor as long as it isn’t the result of a genetic problem. Hair and eye color are also irrelevant since Antwan’s DNA will kind of counteract or overwrite those anyway. However, a high level of intelligence and musical, vocal and or instrumental, talent are complete and total must haves…acting, dancing, martial arts or sports aptitude also is preferred. Someone who is younger, twenty one to twenty two is also preferred. Has your counseling team made the women aware that their ovum could be donated to a same sex couple?”

“Yes, we actually have a bank of egg donors and gestational surrogates who are doing this to actively help same sex male couples.” Ms. Greer assured us gently.

“Can we limit our selection process to those at first and then move into the women who know it is a possibility but for whom it’s not an overarching reason for their donation or work with your agency?” I asked.

“Of course.” She said and efficiently pulled up that particular database.

Hiram smiled. “Thank you.” He said as he passed me the iPad so I could begin our search. “Now any of the non-implanted embryos that are left after the successful implantation…” I really stopped paying attention. We’d discussed all the things he was asking and talking about with Ms. Greer, besides, though the technology was a lot better, this wasn’t his first time at this particular rodeo, he knew what he was doing.

It had been much this same way twenty years before. I had been the one to search through the profiles, though back then we’d had to go to Chicago to find an agency that would take us. It had been a shock to find a woman who lived so near Lima to be our surrogate. I knew that I wouldn’t bother with the essays on the first time through the profiles. I would only bother with those when I had it narrowed down from the hundred and seventy two in the chosen set to about fifteen or so. There weren’t very many of them that were to be immediately disqualified based on race, very few Latinas or black women were in the set, only about twenty-three total. The largest block of women were precluded because they had no discernable musical talent. That narrowed the field down to about sixty. I was able to say goodbye to eleven more by excluding women who had blonde hair…not important really, just a personal pet peeve that was completely based on an easily disproved stereotype. From there I finally removed every one over twenty five. That left me with eighteen.

I marked them on our ‘intended parent’ profile, so that I could read more when we got home. When Hiram and Carrie were completely happy with the meeting and Ms. Greer was happy with our cashier’s checks, we made our way back to Lima, discussing a few things about the meeting in the car. I explained to Hiram how many essays we’d need to read through. At this point I was also weighing the pros and cons of finding a second egg donor. One of the black women I’d put aside had been perfect, MBA from Stanford, spent weekends teaching underprivileged young girls to sing and to dance, she played several different types of woodwind instruments, including alto and tenor saxophones and the oboe. Plus she was five foot nine, combining her DNA with Hiram’s would create a very beautiful child. It would double the cost for the egg donor side of things, but we could certainly implant both embryos from both egg donors into the same woman.

So we discussed it. I showed Hiram her profile and that of the runner up for his ‘male gametes’ he was so very against the words sperm or semen…my poor baby. The runner up was an actual runner. She was in her church choir and played piano and flute. We also spent time reading the essays and getting the eighteen prospective donors that would receive my DNA down to three. My personal favorite was a young woman who had actually runaway from an oppressive home after her family found out that she was a lesbian. She only had a high school diploma, but before being forced out of the closet she’d been accepted to Juilliard and NYADA as well as AMDA, NYU and Princeton. She played guitar, piano and drums. She wasn’t very tall, only about five foot four and she was shaped more like Danica Jones than Gabrielle Evans, but I liked her. In her picture her dirty blonde hair was streaked with blue and purple. She definitely seemed like someone young me would have been friends with. My second choice was a little older than my twenty-one year old first choice. She was twenty-three, had a degree in thermodynamic engineering and wanted to use the fees she would earn for being an egg donor to take a summer and hike the Appalachian Trail. She was a classically trained cellist and sang opera. Her red hair and green eyes put her above my third place candidate. Hey, I loved Danielle Steele’s ‘Zoya’ sue me. My third choice sang, did jazz, tap and hip hop dancing. She had a degree in theatre performance from Carnegie Mellon University. Once we had our list of possible donors, I emailed Ms. Greer with the change in plans and the list of possible donors or each of us, and transferred the necessary funds to move us forward.

After that, things seemed to sprint forward. Dani, my first choice and Robyn my first choice for Hiram both had no problem with the terms of our contract, were both available immediately and less than a month after our first meeting with Ms. Greer, we were meeting with her to begin the process of finding a surrogate. It took us only a matter of days to decide upon a twenty-eight year old mother of three, a set of twins and a single birth, whose husband was deployed overseas but who had a huge support system in place and had actually done surrogacy once before for her first cousin and his husband. Our second choice was a mother of two, who worked as a home healthcare nurse and her wife worked as a police officer. Our third choice actually ended up being the one who was available at the same time as our egg donors. She was a thirty-one year old mother of one child who had died from cancer. Since she found out that cancer was almost a genetic certainty for any children she had with her own eggs, she didn’t want any other children of her own, but she chose to act as a surrogate to help with her own loss and to help others have children of their own. We would be her third time acting as a surrogate.

As all around us life seemed to be going through huge upheavals, we finished making the funds available for the egg donors and filled the escrow account for our surrogate and she signed both our secondary contract and the agency specific one as well. We took the events of the day before our fertilization and implantation date as a great sign. Perhaps it really was because they implanted two of my most robust embryos and two of Hiram’s, and by the time we returned from spending Rachel’s spring break in Manhattan with her, we received the news that three of the four implanted successfully. We did retain the rights for all the rest of the fertilized eggs, but they were put into cryostasis just in case we decided to have more of them implanted in a surrogate in the future. 

There were no words to explain the amount of joy we were experiencing. Hiram and I experienced our first music industry party, we had three children on the way and our eldest had brought her GPA up to a nice solid three point oh at her midterm grades. Life was going wonderfully for the Berry family. I couldn’t help but think that Mercedes, Sam and Noah forming their relationship had been one of the worst things to ever happen to our family… and one of the best.


	5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland)/Please Come Home For Christmas (Jon Bon Jovi)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories
> 
> Special thanks to Isis Aurora Tomoe & Jaz Mitch who have been Beta rock stars for my Christmas story

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Judy Garland)  
Blaine PoV

I had just completed my first semester of college and it had been a weird and wonderful and crazy and completely perfect experience. In my heart of hearts I knew that life would have been completely different if Cooper hadn’t pointed out that I had enough credits and was well on track to have completed all the requirements for Graduation by half-way through what would have been my senior year. He advised me to work my ass off and try to graduate at the end of my junior year, rather than wasting a year at McKinley or even at Dalton when I didn’t have to. It was perfect for me because I really had cursed the fact that I hadn’t been born a year earlier…I really wanted to experience New York with Kurt on equal footing. In true Anderson fashion, I had a goal that was within my reach…all I had to do was work hard and I would be able to reach it…so I did. 

And having done so made everything better. Kurt and I were stronger than ever despite the hiccups that we’d had in learning to live together. It had been very necessary that we learn balance in our relationship. Kurt had a very different childhood than I did. Many would say that despite his early loss of his mother and both sets grandparents, he was very well adjusted…probably more than I. However being an only child of a man like Burt who valued self-sufficiency so much, at least he was an only child until he was sixteen, had left an indelible mark on who Kurt was. Kurt liked alone time. I liked together time. The opposing personality traits that had made us perfect for each other before we lived together were the exactly the things we needed to learn to adjust to and compromise on, in order to make it as a couple. We had to work pretty hard to find a point where we were both happy. Ultimately Kurt found that after being all on his own running between classes at NYADA and FIT in the evenings after dinner, he liked spending some quiet time just the two of us. We could each have what we needed by sitting together in our room working on our separate homework or projects and just being together, often, without saying a word. It fulfilled my sometimes clingy need to be with the man I loved even as it filled his need for quiet and semi-solitude. 

Other than finding a healthy balance in Kurt and my relationship, the friendships we had with our roommates were going strong as well. Living together and going to school together had ensured that Mercedes, Sam and Puck made the move from being Kurt’s friends to being our friends. Sam had certainly cemented his place as my best non-Kurt friend. He and I shared a deep and abiding love of all things superhero. I will admit I was a lot more into the TV shows, cartoons and movies than the comic books. Sam loved all of the same things but he had gotten into all of them through the comic books his original dyslexia therapist had used to help him get more comfortable with reading. We also shared a certain level of enjoyment of the movies and television shows of the Sci-fi genre. Though admittedly, I was far more into Star Wars, Galaxy Quest and Farscape while Sam tended to go more towards the Star Trek and Star Gate franchises. He was very determined to get me addicted to his favorites as well. The worse part was that as I watched more and more of the old Next Generation episodes on BBC America, the more I really was getting hooked, much to Sam’s satisfaction. 

Mercedes and I had bonded over the fact that when it came to our studies, we were as OCD as Ms. Pillsbury at her worst. We were school supply and organization supply junkies. We took meticulous notes and color coded and revised and scheduled…it was rather nice to see it in someone other than myself. She and I were currently in discussions about repurposing one of the bookshelves in the study. With some custom made doors attached it could be a great ‘supply closet’. Yes, we had computers and everything, but we both enjoyed the feeling of handwritten notes, preferably in our own version of shorthand so that they were worthless to anyone else. When I realized that we both did that, I decided that she might be Kurt’s bestie, but she was my soul sister. It had paid off dividends too. Mercedes and I had both been supremely confident that we had aced the final in the English class we’d shared and in the Psych class we had at different times with the same teacher. I liked her so much that I decided it was time to talk Mercedes into letting me start training her in Krav Maga.

The final part of that trio had been the hardest for me to make friends with. I’m not sure that we will ever be as close as I am with Sam and Mercedes…but Puck and I enjoy doing certain things together as well. We spar. Both of us love fighting and sparring is a great workout. In the beginning Puck was just a kind of cooler version of the assholes who had bullied me before they ultimately decided that they could somehow beat the gay out of me. Apparently they felt that me being myself was enough of a reason for them to beat me into the hospital. The fact that Puck, in my mind, was just like them, just friendly with Kurt and therefore more tolerant of me, left me feeling very wary around the older and bigger boy. Those feelings of wariness were finally, irrevocably put to rest about a week before Halloween. Kurt had told me that Puck’s bullying past was a thing of the past many times to try and make me comfortable with our other roommate, but that wasn’t really cemented in my head until I witnessed Puck stop an instance of bullying on campus. 

One of the football team’s freshman linebackers was trying to convince another guy in our shared Contemporary Civilizations class…one who admittedly reminded me of what I probably would have looked like if I had never gotten into boxing and krav maga...to ‘help him with his homework’, which could easily be read as doing it for the linebacker. Puck was coming out of the building they were standing against and understood the situation quick, fast and in a hurry. Getting there before I could, he pulled the big dude back, instituting himself between bully and victim and said reasonably. “Look, you’re a douchbag. It’s a free country, you can be a douchebag if you want to be, but you’re a foot taller and two people heavier than this guy. So you bowing up on him makes you look pathetic as fuck. I get it. You’re here to block and protect your quarterback…you never really learned how to do much else…or maybe you aren’t a total idiot. Maybe you just haven’t learned good time management and trying to keep your grades up while going to all the practices and conditioning shit you have to do is just beyond you. The guy behind me, real Poindexter type, he can do the hard part while you stick to the heavy lifting…I get the temptation. But again, let me just say that you trying to force this kid to do all your work makes you look as pathetic as fuck. Now, I’m gonna throw out that age old ‘go pick on someone your own size’ line…which we both know that you aren’t going to do because you’re here meaning that you have got to be too smart to try that shit with anybody who can actually kick your ass. That is also why you’re going to turn your big ass around and walk away hoping and praying that when you end up having to get a real job after college and you interview for one at this little guy’s tech startup that’s going global or some shit….he doesn’t remember you and the bullshit that you just tried to pull.” 

I was a little surprised, and admittedly impressed and awed, when the linebacker just looked thoughtful and walked away. I had an epiphany in that moment. It took witnessing him diffusing that situation and standing up for the bullied man to make me realize that the Noah Puckerman that had tossed Kurt into dumpsters back in the day was dead and buried. It reminded me of a quote from the horribly bad and yet cheesily decent remake of King Kong… ‘It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.’ Mercedes and Sam had slain the bully inside Puck, giving him a security in their love that made being a decent human being more appealing than returning to being a prick. After that we moved from roommates to friend with ease. Puck was my favorite sparring buddy. 

To my everlasting delight, I had found that New York was a really fun place to explore and I could so see myself making my life there with Kurt. But I rather enjoyed visiting my hometown. My great-great grandfather had founded Anderson Merchandizing in a small out of the way town not very far from Columbus over a century and a half before I had been born. Now it was a multinational corporation and when I finished my MBA I would start working my way from middle management up to a position to be ready to take over for my father when he was ready to step down. That thought always filled me with both pride and dread. I was very proud of the fact that I would be able to take up the mantle of the business that had been in our family with no non-related board members in the entire life of the company. But I firmly dreaded that fact that I couldn’t be sure what taking over the family business would mean for Kurt and I. his life would be in Manhattan. Whether he chose to make his career theatre or fashion, Manhattan was where the heart of America’s musical and play culture and fashion industries resided. 

Then again, AM did house its international headquarters in London, which also had a thriving theatre and fashion scene and same sex marriage will be completely legal there in March. That was definitely something to consider. He could trod the boards in the West End or have a fashion house in Knightsbridge or Chelsea. That was certainly worth looking into and thinking about most stringently. I could easily run the entire company from the International Office. But I knew that the future couldn’t be seen until it became the present. Then all that could be done was just to tackle it head on and bend it to my will.

It was two days before Christmas, and I was enjoying one of the breakfast burritos Nina had made for me and frozen before she took her well deserved week off when my thoughts were interrupted by Cooper slamming into the kitchen. While my relationships with my boyfriend and our friends were going great…some bug had crawled up Cooper’s ass and he was pissed off at me. Unfortunately the drama king couldn’t just come out and tell me what was wrong. It had only been a few hours since he’d gotten home, and I was already done with the tension. “Coop, what on earth did I do? We were good when you went back to LA last summer. So what could I have possibly done to piss you off in our daily ‘I’m alive, are you?’ texts?” 

Cooper cut his eyes over to give me a sidelong glance. “You want to know what you did to me? You want to know what you did to me?” he hissed. “I’ll tell you exactly what you did to me. What am I little brother…what is my stock and trade, Blainey Boy?” Cooper didn’t give me a chance to answer, which was probably a good thing since I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. “I am an actor. I have been busting my hump going from audition to audition for years. Now you, my darling baby brother, you had an inside line on what turned out to be one of the biggest movies released this season. And did you mention me to your boyfriend’s bestie? Do you call me and say ‘hey dear, sweet big brother…whom I love so very much and who helped me find a way to save my relationship with my boyfriend who was going to go off to college in the biggest city in the country and indubitably find a new boyfriend who would far surpass my own rather understated charms…I happen to know of a movie being filmed and one of my glee friend is costarring in.’ Well, did you? No you didn’t even say ‘hey Coop, I’m going to a major motion picture premiere, a place where you could almost certainly meet industry people who could elevate you from commercials, at least, to television work.” He glared at me. “This could have been my big break. In a couple of years, when I won my first Academy Award, I’d have thanked you in my acceptance speech.” 

“Oh.” I muttered. “Sorry about that.” I had known about Mercedes part in SongBird pretty much since the very beginning. But it had never once entered my mind to even mention the movie to Cooper or Cooper to Mercedes.

“Oh. He says.” Cooper threw his hands up in a very dramatic display of frustration. Sometimes, he really makes me wonder how of the two of us I’m the one who likes men. “Seriously, Blaine. Do you know what one line in a Weitz Brothers’ movie could have done for my career? It could have propelled me forward at least five years. By this time next year I could be starring in a USA ‘character’ show. I could have been a FBI agent or spy or even better an ex-con who was helping an FBI agent or spy in order to keep from going back to jail.” His glare ratcheted up a notch. “I could have gotten nominated for an Emmy.” 

I knew that it wouldn’t be at all prudent to point out that his entire reason for being angry with me was based on conjecture and supposition. “Cooper.” I tried to be reasonable without sound condescending. “I am really sorry that I didn’t think of telling you about the movie. I didn’t think that it was something that you might be interested in.” I finally said honestly. “If you are hanging around after Christmas, KAMA is filming two music videos here after the new year. I don’t know how many extras they are going to need for the second, but I do know that they are still looking for teachers for the first one. Nick Knight is directing them both.” Sam and I had really enjoyed all the jokes that we’d made at that poor guy’s name. But it wasn’t our fault. ‘Forever Knight’ had been a cult classic. 

Cooper looked contemplative, but eventually shook his head. “I have got to be back on the twenty-ninth. I have auditions all lined up for every non holiday day that week and I’m doing the paid crowd shots on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, I get there early enough and I can pay my rent off that one night’s work.”

But wait…“Dad pays your rent.” I said confused. 

Cooper gave me his most charming smile. “Yes…Dad puts money every month into my account for rent…but this month I got an amazing hair cut and totally had to get new head shots to immortalize it. So I used that money on those…and you are not gonna tattle either. Are you?” 

“I don’t know…what’s in it for me?” I threw back teasingly. I took the noogie because it meant that we were back to normal…or at least normal for us. The rest of the afternoon flew by. I got dragged out to help Mom with the few last minute things for her chicken inasal, garlic rice, pinakbet and kare-kare. Christmas and Thanksgiving were really the only times Mom cooked. While she could cook, she didn’t enjoy doing so, so Nina took care of that chore for her. However, Nina always had holidays off, and Mom took those times to make sure that Cooper and I were exposed to the foods of her childhood. While we shopped, I told her of the realization that I had come to about my dreams of making a life with Kurt after college. “My Darling Boy…do you love your Kurt? Do you love him to the point that you desire no other?”

“I see us raising children together Mama.” I said honestly. “You do like him, don’t you?” 

Mama smiled. “Blaine, I like your Bana…I will admit it took some time for him to do so. At first I thought he was a bit standoffish and far too obsessed with clothing…but your Kurt has grown on me. He is very dramatic and yet so very mapagtimpi, prudish, yes. And I still have to say that your Lolo certainly loves clothes. More importantly he loves you. I just have a mother’s worry that you are both very young. I married young, younger than you are now, and I was so miserable with my first husband that after we were married for less than a year, I prayed every day that he would die before I was left with a child of his. I was so miserable that my Nanay prayed that he would die before my Tatay finally lost it and killed him. It was a relief when Typhoon Ruping claimed him. He seemed so caring and as if he honored my independence and individuality when he was courting me, but as soon as we were wed everything changed. When he died, I jumped on the chance to come to America, to go to school here. I am glad that you and your Kurt have this time to live together…to really learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses, foibles and quirks. Your father and I, we made ourselves take the time to do the same. It is why I knew that he really did love me and all of me. That he was worth the risk of committing to marriage again.”

Mom rarely spoke of her first marriage. We knew that she had been widowed before she came to America and went to college, but I had never known that she was so unhappy in her first marriage. Granted I couldn’t say it was a shocker. Mom never went home; she always flew Poppa and Grandmoma in to visit us here. I couldn’t think of anything to say, so I just pulled her close and hugged her tightly. “I’m glad you and Dad found each other and that you are happy again.” I finally murmured. 

“And I am glad that you have found someone who allows you your happy too.” She smiled. “Now, stop borrowing trouble. The future cannot be seen until it becomes the present. Then it is just a matter of tackling it head on and bending it to your will.” 

The next morning, as was our family tradition the men were shooed from the house pretty early. Christmas Eve for the Anderson men was almost always spent at The Club. The wind was bitingly cold and there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground, but fortunately The Club offered more entertainment than simply golf. The country club had a tastefully decorated but truly expansive billiards room and several smaller, private gaming rooms…one of which played host to my, Cooper and Dad’s yearly Christmas Eve Pool and/or Darts Tournament of Death. Dad always made sure to get one of the private rooms, reserving one as soon as the calendar came open because we didn’t just play billiards or darts, we talked about any and everything. It was in that room that I had hesitatingly confessed to my father and older brother that I thought that I was gay. Dad had looked shocked enough that Cooper had felt the need to state that he wasn’t the least bit surprised and once I was twenty-one he was dragging me to all the LA clubs with him so that I could protect his virtue from all the gay dudes that were constantly hitting on him. It had been a Christmas Eve in that same room a few years earlier that had seen Cooper’s almost tearful confession that the thought of following in our father’s footsteps made him not just nauseous, but actually vomit. Dad had looked so shocked and hurt that I had promised myself that I would do whatever it took to make sure that Anderson Merchandizing continued on –uninterrupted- in my great-great grandfather’s direct line for another hundred and fifty years. 

That Christmas Eve, the first that I was legally a man, we had brunch then concentrated on our first game before Dad began what I always thought of as the ritual of interrogation. “So Coop…anything interesting going on in your life? You just got some new head shots done right…how are they working out for you?”

Cooper looked over at me and all I could do was shrug. I knew I hadn’t told Dad, but then again our father was kind of like Albus Dumbledore. He just knew things. “Yeah, I guess they are working out okay. I have auditions lined up for an Axe commercial and a bit part on a TNT show that is gonna be a vehicle for Melissa Peterman from Reba.” 

“That’s good.” Dad said lining up his next shot. “Did that ABC casting director get in touch with your agent? Ruth Mayzer forwarded him your headshot and resume for the New Year’s Eve West Coast segments.” 

“Ruth…Mayzer…” Cooper seemed confused. 

“You’ve heard me call her Bubbie Ruth. Puck’s grandmother.” I explained quickly. “She is the head costume director at ABC News. I think she was over for dinner the day you emailed me your new headshots.” 

Cooper smirked at me. “I told you connections are what make or break you out there.” He chuckled. 

Dad shook his head. “Connections can only get you so far. You’ll need to show that you have a good work ethic and are willing to take direction. Considering the career you are pursuing, you also need to show a certain amount of style. You should spend some time with Blaine’s boyfriend before you go back. He is studying at FIT and NYADA, he should be able to rejuvenate your wardrobe.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “He is aching to try his hand at more straight men. I think he is getting bored with just Sam and Puck…Lauren had been doing most of the dressing of his brother.” I said honestly. “I think he despairs of my lack of fashion prowess.”

“I don’t know which one must grate on his nerves more, your bowties or your socks.” Cooper taunted. “He dresses both the male members of KAMA too…I might have to have a little chat with him. They have only been on two red carpets but Joan Rivers and the Fashion Police have had nothing but glowing things to day about them.”

Dad and I share a look. We know that Kurt is at best an assistant to Anika and Mercedes right now, but they did rely on him pretty heavily when it came to Noah and Sam’s clothing. “So Cooper, your brother has a steady boyfriend…are there no beautiful women in LA?” 

Cooper laughed. “Unfortunately there are too many. LA is the home of a plethora of amazingly beautiful women of all shapes, colors and creeds. How is a poor man to choose?” 

“Carefully hopefully.” Dad shot back quick as a whip. “And I hope that if you’re channeling your inner man-whore out there, you are being safe about it.”

“Condoms used every single time…no matter how clean or ‘protected’ she claims to be.” Cooper assured Dad. It was one thing they were both very, very serious about. When Cooper had left home Dad had given him a big ass box of Trojans and a few shares of the company that made them. Shareholders get coupons for free condoms throughout the year. “Guess pretty soon, Blainey Boy will need to buy some stock in Church & Dwight?” I gave him a hard glare. “Well, well, well…who knew? You are living life like its nineteen fifty something…marrying the man you give your virginity too. It really baffles me that you’re really planning to commit yourself for life to the very first person to give you head? Wow.” 

I smirked evilly. “I never said that Kurt was the first guy to give me head.” I returned just as coarsely. “I’m not saying anything further on the subject, but while I am hoping that the man I gave my virginity to will be the man I spend the rest of my life with, I’m not near as lily livered as you have always thought.”

“Never thought you were lily livered, little brother. You have always had a seriously steel backbone. But you are also the same kid who thought that ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ should have had a higher rating because Jessica Rabbit showed so much skin.” Cooper pointed out. 

“You were hounding me about how she was going to kick start my puberty…and I was day dreaming about Prince Eric or something.” I groaned. “I thought you thinking I was uptight was better than you thinking I was weird.”

“I already thought you were weird…you used to yell ‘Shazaam’ in the middle of the grocery story like you really would turn into Captain Marvel or something.” Cooper laughed. 

“I hate you so very, very much.” 

Dad shook his head. I guess he was rather used to this. No Christmas Eve was official until either me or Coop decided that the other was not worth our affection. “Alright boys. Eighteen and twenty five, and you still cannot go more than an hour before one of you ‘hates’ the other. Now, Cooper stop teasing your brother before he decides to resurrect the ‘Nightbird’. You should be safe…I’m pretty sure that Kurt and Mercedes burnt the costumes he and Sam were making.”

“See, weird.” Cooper challenged. 

“Well, I suppose that, to an outsider, could be construed as weird…we thought it was awesome.” I returned. 

“Blaine, on an entirely different subject, I wanted to ask you what you thought about the new packaging material that was developed in our labs in Hamburg.” It was always best to change the subject to business when he wanted to shut down arguments between Coop and I. once we’d exhausted that subject, Dad looked me in the eye and said in a very calm voice. “Your mother and I spoke at length last night. Starting in twenty-twenty, we will begin the process of expanding our New York bureau and moving most of our management from Ohio to Brooklyn.” 

“But the company charter says that they have to remain here.” I breathed. 

Cooper shook his head. “No it doesn’t. It says that Anderson Merchandizing must remain incorporated in Ohio and maintain the facilities here…but the actually management of the company could really be located anywhere.” Dad and I both turned and stared at him with dropped jaws. “What, I am the oldest…until I realized that the day to day running of the company would completely crush my soul, I thought I would be the next Anderson of Anderson Merchandizing. I learned some stuff.” 

“Surprising as it may be…Cooper is right.” Dad smiled. “We can make the transition slowly and by the time I am ready to retire, you will not need to uproot your family and move back here. And speaking of…I invited your future in-laws and hubby to join us for lunch. They should be here pretty soon.” It was only then that I realized how long we’d been talking. The waitstaff entered through a back door and set up a lunch service for six. Within ten minutes after they headed back out through the barely noticeable door in the room’s wood paneling, the club’s majordomo entered leading Burt, Kurt and Finn. The six of us shared lunch and then bonded together for the rest of the afternoon. Rather than heading home early when we were bored with watching Dad and Burt smack all our asses in both billiards and darts, we headed to the theatre. Dad had only seen ‘SongBird’ once and he wanted to see it again. It was an awesome day. One of the best ever, I hoped that sharing our Christmas Eve with the Hummel-Hudsons men would become our new tradition.

Please Come Home For Christmas (Jon Bon Jovi)  
Finn PoV

It was incredible how fast the first semester of my freshman year of college had flown by. It hadn’t all been perfect or even great, but the simple truth was that even the bad had helped me learn so much about myself and helped me grow up a lot. I hadn’t realized how rose tinted the glasses I viewed the world through had been until I finally took them off. Life was for the living and everyone had an equal chance of having good and bad happen to them. While I was a unique individual with certain talents and abilities, I should never expect anything to just be handed to me and I needed to be willing to work hard to achieve my goals. Those weren’t the easiest lessons to learn, but I knew that once I really let go of some of the feelings of entitlement and super-ness that Coach Tanaka had instilled in me and Mr. Schue had intensified, I would be a better person for it and would really start to make a man of myself.

Christmas break was pretty awesome too. Vince and Lauren and I had fun and got our work done before everyone else got home. Which turned out to be a really good thing because once Artie and Puck and Sam and Mike and the rest of the guys got home, I wasn’t able to concentrate on anything but basketball or football or whatever they got us together to play. We were all enjoying the break and we had tons of stuff to celebrate. Like Puck, Mercedes and Sam’s engagement, and Cedes movie opening and all of our grades. Things were pretty awesome. 

Christmas Eve morning, all of us New Directions who had been working out together in the mornings had agreed to take the holiday mornings off, Burt woke me and Kurt up around ten and told us that we were having lunch at the country club with Blaine and his brother and Dad. Blaine’s brother, Cooper, was cool, but I don’t care what anybody said there were times talking to him when you’d expect him to be the gay one rather than Blaine. I knew it was wrong to stereotype people, but Cooper Anderson was a major drama queen and Blaine was so laid back that technically…when you thought about it…they actually seemed to be the proof that stereotypes could be wrong. Kurt took the full hour and half to get ready so we made it there right on time. As we walked in, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact that I had dated Quinn for over a year and Mr. Fabray always crowed about how important he was here but I had been to this place more in the last seven or so months than I ever had back then. We were shown to a room that had a pool table in the center and a dart station along one wall, there was a wet bar and a table set up for us to have lunch. 

Once we had all exchanged small talk, Mr. Anderson led us to the table. “I hope that you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of ordering our lunches a head of time. It will allow us more time to talk. It feels as if Burt and I have gotten to know each other pretty well, but I know very little about Kurt and Finn other than what you are studying and how your voices sound when raised in song. So why don’t we all take this afternoon and get to know each other better.” 

So that’s what we did. Mr. Anderson was damn good at reading people or whatever you call it because he had gotten the perfect order for each of us. He got me a third pound bacon cheeseburger with the works and a side salad. For both himself and Burt he had ordered a big prime rib sandwich Burt’s came with the same kind of field greens salad as mine and Mr. Anderson’s came with a Caesar salad. Blaine received a grilled chicken and avocado sandwich that was just as big as my burger but he had a bowl of grilled chicken tortilla soup rather than a side salad. Kurt too had soup, a bowl of French onion, but his entrée was a grilled chicken and berry salad. Cooper made me revisit my earlier ‘how is he not gay’ thoughts, because he was way too happy over his shrimp and lobster chowder and seven pepper sirloin salad. After lunch we talked about whatever came up. Mr. Anderson liked the way I looked at football and a possible NFL career. Cooper and Kurt ended up sitting off to the side with an iPad they got from the butler type dude who brought us to the room. They were talking fashion and seemed to be in talks to completely change Cooper’s image. 

The afternoon flew by. We ended up going to the movies so Mr. Anderson could see ‘SongBird’ again. It was cool and weird and awesome to know somebody who was in a movie. Cooper kept saying that he could have done Gary Owen’s part and he’d have been perfect. But since Garry Owen played one of Jill Scott’s friends in the movie, I didn’t think that Cooper was old enough to make sense in the role. I didn’t tell him that though. He was so upset about missing his ‘big break’ that I felt pretty bad for the guy. Besides even if I didn’t feel for him, if I had said a word, Kurt might have pierced my ear drum shrieking at me if I was already irking his possibly soon-to-be in-laws. When we got out of the movie, Blaine and Kurt went off somewhere to exchange gifts, and I ran home and got Lauren’s and Vince’s gifts and texted to see what they were doing. 

Lauren was ‘helping’ her dad cook but both and Vince said it was cool for me to come over. Vince let me in, and I passed him his gift. It wasn’t much just a Buckeye scarlet hoodie with a picture of Texas on it that said ‘Everything Is BIGGER In Texas!’ But it seemed warm and poor Vince had been shivering since the middle of October. While I was on the site where I found that sweatshirt, I also saw a great hoodie that I had had to get for Lauren. It was dark blue and had a woman’s silhouette in white alongside the words ‘Yeah I Fight Like A GIRL’ on the front, then on the back it had a picture of Drew Barrymore from the first Charlie’s Angels movie and that read ‘And I Just Kicked Your ASS’. But that wasn’t her real gift. Her real gift was a pair of wireless earbuds that had a mic that would work with her iPhone. She liked to listen to music when she ran but it could be a hassle with the wire not really being long enough for her height if she kept her phone anywhere but strapped to her arm, which she hated. Plus the ones I got would work with her fitness tracker on her phone so she would have more complete information for her wrestling conditioning journal. Since we weren’t together but I was really hopeful that we were heading that way again, I wanted to get her something she would use and therefore think of me favorably every day.

Since they hadn’t had dinner, and Vince wasn’t trying to depose Mr. Zizes to cook some anyway, so we headed to the Old Barn Out Back and had dinner. One day we were so gonna get banned from that place. After we’d done one time through the buffet, we exchanged our gifts. Vince had gotten me a really cool iPhone/Pod dock that looked like an old fashioned radio. He got ‘his sis Elle’ a bath set that said it was soothing for aching muscles. She appreciated that I could tell. Lauren gave me a bottle of Armani Code Sport, which smelled great. She also gave me a ‘Marvel Agents of Shield’ Wallet that was awesome and cool at the same time. I wondered at the expense but considering that I had spent around a hundred and fifty bucks on her I decided to keep my mouth shut. We decided to head to Club Excess…we weren’t super dressed up, but we met the club’s dress code. The club was hosting a holiday party and we had a blast. Several of the new New Directions were in the club so we hung out with RJC, Steven and Kim. Vince seemed to hit it off great with the trio of Cheerios. He danced with one, tow or all of them pretty much the whole time we were there and he got all three of their phone numbers. I kind of wished Puck had been there. He’d have definitely given Vince some mad props. 

Christmas morning, we slept in until nine then we opened our presents. Kurt, Dad and I had gone in together to get Mom a hundred and twenty eight gigabyte iPad Air. It was really awesome. It was dark gray and it had both Wi-Fi and cellular connect-ability…the cell plan was gonna kill Burt, but Mom had been oohing and ahhing over it for since the first commercial hit the air. We’d also gotten her a custom monogrammed case for it that had a keyboard and everything. On top of that, I had gotten her a tech set that had a great pair pf headphones and spare cords and everything. But the icing on the cake was the purse that Kurt had found at Nordstroms on sale. It was a Marc Jacobs shoulder bag with a special padded pocket just for her new iPad. Mom was so happy when she opened it all she cried. 

Burt was a lot easier and a lot harder to shop for. Instead of a big thing, I ended up getting him a bunch of little things. I got him a magnetic wrist band that would hold screws and washers and things when he was working on cars or around the house or something. I also got him a tool they called ‘vampliers’ which were supposed to get even the most rusty or stripped screws out of their hole. Those two joined a multi-tool and a pair of sturdy work gloves to complete Burt’s presents from me. Kurt had gotten him a great belt and tie set that probably cost more than all my little stuff together. He enthused equally over both of our gifts, but I couldn’t help but think that he was gonna get a whole lot more use out of what I had given him. Mom had gotten him a cool power shaving set that came with scented shave cream and a cup and brush to stir it all up and put it on with. 

Kurt and I had originally said we weren’t getting each other anything, but we remembered how well that had worked in August. So in the end, we just limited what we could spend to twenty bucks. Blaine helped me figure out what to get him by sneaking a peak into his ‘morning routine’ stuff and telling me what brand he used and what he was starting to get low on. I got him the biggest thing of Clinique men’s oil control face wash I could find and stay within the budget. He got me a pair of really expensive designer underwear. Mom got Kurt ten different colored pairs of his favorite ‘loafer’ socks and she got me some clothes too. It was weird to see how much further the same budget went for me than it did for Kurt, just because of the type of things he preferred. Burt, had done the ‘Dad’ thing and gotten us both gift cards, Kurt’s to Macy’s and mine to Target.

On the Saturday after Christmas we all got together and had a great pot luck dinner and party. It was great. Everyone had finished their semester with good grades. Even me, though I’m pretty sure that it was mostly because I studied with Vince and Lauren all the time. Sunday morning me and Vince had to head back to campus to fly down to Miami for the Orange Bowl. It was a great game. We took on Clemson and kicked some Tiger ass. At the after party I was very careful to keep my promise and I didn’t drink anything stronger than a beer and I only had one of those. The party was about half way over and the crowd was kind of crazy. I think me and Vince were the only two there who weren’t drunk off our asses. Then the girl who had been pretty much responsible for all the bad things that had happened first semester came up to me. “Hey Finn, great game…you’re a shoo-in for starter next year.” 

“Look, umm I don’t actually know your name. No that doesn’t mean you should tell me what it is.” I had to stop myself. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t say the words Santana had taught me. I wasn’t that guy anymore and I really didn’t want to go back to being that guy. “Look Chrissy,” I tried to keep to the spirit of Santana’s words even if I did make them a lot more polite and everything. I took her to Vince and pawned her off on him. I didn’t realize that anyone had been taping it or whatever until the video went viral. They even mentioned it on ESPN. I just tried to keep my head down. I did find that women around campus treated me with respect rather than like just another dickheaded jock. It was nice. 

First semester had been good. But second semester was shaping up to be great. Coach had pulled me to the side and told me that with his primary starter graduating at the end of the year, and the second string being looked at for an early draft, I might well be the starting quarterback come the following fall. I saw the offensive line coach talking to Vince and he was being shifted to the starting roster in the fall too. On top of all of that Lauren was having a great season. She had competed in ten meets and won all but two. At the college level in her weight class that was freaking epic. She and I had gone back to spending time alone, just talking and our counselor had helped us sit down and work through all the things we wanted and needed from each other in our main relationship. She and I had talked and agreed that we’d date for at least two months before making love again, and then we would hold off on the Ma’am and Finnie love making until we were sure that the trust was where it needed to be once again. It might be a long process, but Burt told me over and over again that anything really worth having was worth putting time in to work for. Lauren was worth all the time in the world. I couldn’t wait for me and Lauren’s first ‘we’re back together for real’ date. I had it all planned out and it was going to be awesome.


	6. What Do the Lonely Do At Christmas, Put a Little Love In Your Heart & Breath of Heaven, Mary's Song

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories  
> Special thanks to MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch…this chapter would never have happened without you.   
> In an effort to make my self-imposed deadline of having this story completely posted and Les Ames Soeurs Chapter 11 up by Labor Day, this chapter is unbeated. I apologize to my Beta Readers for this fact. I hope there are not too many mistakes. 
> 
> Anyone interested in taking on Beta Reading duties for this series...please let me know.

What Do the Lonely Do At Christmas (The Emotions)  
Judith Fabray PoV

I could not believe that I was found guilty of crimes related to that deluded youngest daughter of mine and her unnatural relationship with her father. When the judge sentenced me to no less than three years and no more than five, I truly couldn’t believe my ears. Russell was serving no time at all for having relations with Lucy, but because I knew…I was not a participant, I just knew about it, and according to the court benefitted from it…I was sentenced to at the very least three times as long as Russell with is damn plea bargain had served and he was the actual guilty party. But perhaps the largest injustice was that while Russell had spent his time in minimum security at Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution, a cushy prison that allowed him to run his business and everything, I was stuck in the hellhole that was ‘close security’ at the Ohio Reformatory for women. I wasn’t considered dangerous or likely to make an escape attempt, so I wasn’t under intense close supervision. But the caveat to that was that since I wasn’t under more extreme measures of supervision. Perhaps that would have been a good thing, but I had barely been in my cell for a day before everyone somehow knew that I was in jail for ‘allowing my husband to ‘rape’ my daughter while living the high life off her pain’. 

At least that was how my cell mate, Sophia, stated it. No matter how much I tried to explain that it was Lucy’s fault in the first place…she and the other women all looked down on me. Which made no sense since I was the only one of the women in my entire cell block who came from any sort of money. I should have been held in great esteem and yet I hadn’t been there six weeks before I was beaten into the infirmary. “Lots of the bitches in this place identify with your daughter and hate your uptight, Richie bitch ass.” Big Boo laughed as she beat me mercilessly. “You love your fucking money and your bullshit status more than you love your daughter. You traded your little girl like she was a fucking commodity. By the time you leave here you’ll sure as hell know what it means to get traded and passed around for shit and power.” 

I wish she hadn’t had the power to back up her words. But much like Morgan Freeman’s character in that Stephen King movie that hadn’t seemed at all like a Stephen King movie…Big Boo was revered in our prison, though not for the same reason. While Sophia was the person who could get things…Big Boo was six foot two and many would, at first glance, confuse her for a man…she was held in awe because she had and could beat anyone who ‘stepped to her’. I had been very careful not to do anything that could be misconstrued as ‘stepping to her’ but apparently she had just been waiting for my initial thirty day ‘watch’ period to be over so that she could beat me with impunity. I was in the infirmary for over a week. One of the guards was kind enough to inform me that since all the witnesses said that I started the fight, I would have to serve an additional six months on my original sentence. I wanted to object but the look of malicious joy on his face told me that he knew I hadn’t started the fight. That he completely felt that I had gotten what I deserved and that there would be no help from that quarter. 

When I returned to my cell, Sophia just smirked at me, “If I were you, I’d do whatever I had to do to get on Big Boo’s good side. Granted, I’m not sure that she actually has one or that you can get on it considering that she has some issues with mommas acting as their daughter’s pimps. Still if you don’t want to spend your entire bid in and out of the infirmary, you’d better try.” 

“And how, exactly would you suggest I do that?” I asked quietly. Supposedly I was still to receive my alimony while I was incarcerated, but according to what my lawyer said when I was being processed at the courthouse for transport, only twenty-five dollars a month would be put into my commissary account. I wouldn’t be able to buy her friendship with that.

Sophia rolled her eyes. “Don’t all you white broads experiment in college? I suggest you get your head between Big Boo’s thighs and don’t come up for air until she doesn’t want to beat the shit out of you every time her eyes land on you.”

The next three months, that followed that conversation, were agonizingly long. However, since Francine was still at school and the phone system wouldn’t allow us to call cellphones, I had to wait, day after agonizing day until she should have been home to call the house. I knew that Lucy would never accept the charges despite the fact that she was living in my house. I didn’t care what anyone said that house was mine. I had worked tirelessly with interior decorators over the years getting everything exactly as I wanted it. My house was on the Lima tour of homes. Our master suite had been featured in Ohio Living magazine. I did that. But according to the court my house belonged to my daughters and Lucy’s spawn. Since I had found out that my ungrateful daughter had not named the baby after me, I refused to call it my grandchild. I was far too young and beautiful to be a grandmother in the first place. 

I was surprised to find that my calls to my daughter wouldn’t complete. I scheduled an appointment with the trustee who could tell me what was going on. “Oh, as soon as you were incarcerated, both of your daughters filed a ‘No Contact’ order with Victim Services. You are not allowed to contact them while you’re doing your bid and you are to stay at least five hundred yards away from them, your granddaughter, and any properties they own when you get out.” She gave me a hard look. “You know, you officially have gotta be the worse mom of the damn year when neither one of your daughters wants anything at all to do with your ass.” 

Of course that news made it back to the cellblock before I could. The beating Big Boo gave me that night, surprisingly, wasn’t as severe. Unfortunately, I would soon realize that she had decided that many small beatings were a lot more fun than putting me in the infirmary. The guards, again, sided with the other inmates and named me a trouble maker in need of discipline. I was moved from the annoying laundry detail I had been assigned to when I arrived, to kitchen duty on dishes detail. It was hot, dirty and my hands were constantly submerged in the hottest, most disgusting dishwater ever known to man. I had originally believed that here was a big dishwasher machine thing that did the work of cleaning the dishes, but it was out of order and they decided that it would be a better punishment than anything else they could give me…so they did not expend the funds to have the machine repaired. 

I will admit that hearing my daughters, even my perfect and precious Francine had turned on me made me enraged and depressed by turns. Lucy had always been something of a disappointment. She was born very chubby and was a very fussy child. I tried to breast feed her around others and give her the formula at home as I had done Francine…after all I was not ruining my breasts by having a baby suckling me all the time. But Lucy would pitch a fit whenever I had Consuela, or was it Maria, give her a bottle. She would only take the breast. It took four months to wean her and she was a greedy little bitch. It was all her fault that I had needed a breast lift before my thirtieth birthday. Francine, my darling little girl, had been perfectly fine either way and weaned before her first birthday…by the time she was two she had a nice lithe body that grew with her and developed normally. Lucy was a greedy baby and grew into a fat, greedy child. I tried everything to show her that being fit, trim and svelte was important, but Russell would often take her for ice cream or other treats behind my back. Maria…or Consuela, I can never remember her name…would refuse to make her salads while making regular food for the rest of the family. Finally I enrolled her in gymnastics after she had washed out of every single physical activity I had put her in previously. She hadn’t even been able to stick out soccer for a whole season. 

I despaired of her ever being more than the cute, chubby friend in life, but when she was eleven, The Club offered a gymnastic course for the summer. By the end of the summer, Lucy finally started to look like she really was my daughter. When she was thirteen, I convinced Russell that, while his nose was very distinguished on his face…it was far too masculine on Lucy’s. After the massive weight loss and the nose job, Lucy looked so much like me, I knew that she would have a successful high school career, go to a nice college and find an acceptable husband. Then she had ruined it all. I wasn’t upset that she had sex before marriage. It was the way of the ‘cool clique’. To assure my place as Queen Bee of Greenwich’s exclusive Country Day School, I’d sucked off every cool boy in the school from seventh through ninth grades by the time I entered seventh grade myself. No, I simply couldn’t believe that she had been foolish enough to give her virginity to someone of little social connections and even less fiscal means. Then to top it off she had allowed herself to get pregnant. It wasn’t to be borne. 

Unfortunately, I found that no amount of my tongue work would engender any less than negative feelings for me in any of my attackers, I shouldn’t have been surprised, I had been in the position of power during any experimentation in college. When that avenue of protection failed, I turned my attention to the only group that might be willing to help me. I didn’t share their beliefs, the only color I cared about with others was the abundance and age of the green or gold they held in their family accounts. Still approached one of the white women on my cell block and, during the course of the conversation, shared my feelings on the subject of the disappointment that Lucy had proven herself to be with …I was hopeful that I could get involved with the Aryan Sisterhood and get some protection from Big Boo…within days I lost any and all support from anyone in the prison who may have rendered me aide. Apparently many of the women in the prison system had children when they were very young themselves. I supposed that made a certain sort of sense. Many of them had been taken advantage of by fathers and father figures as well. They would side with Lucy. I tried to keep my head down. Deep inside, I held out some hope that Francine would forgive me. 

Thanksgiving was difficult to say the least. There were Mom & Kids days on both the day before and the day after the holiday, which had extended visiting hours itself. Though I knew it was a long shot, I did hope that Francine at least would come to see me, even if it meant suffering certain indignities such as riding the visitor’s bus. I was to be disappointed. Neither girl came to see me for Thanksgiving, they didn’t even send me a card. They didn’t come see me on my birthday a few days later. They didn’t send me a Christmas card or gifts or even a damn email. New Year’s Eve had always been one of my favorite holidays, but I quickly found that it was just another day inside. I had served nine months of the thirty-six I had been sentenced. I was not sure that I would live to see the day that I would once more be free. As many do, I started to attend the religious services on Sundays to find something to do with all my time. The first time I really wondered if the rest of the world had been right and my instincts for achieving all the things that I had; the rich husband, the right friends, the perfect house, the perfect daughters; had been completely wrong was when Sister Mary Patrick, the jovial and always happy nun who came in to talk with us on Sunday mornings looked at me as if I were the most disgusting human being she had ever set eyes upon. I didn’t understand how everything I had ever really believed in could have been so wrong. I decided to use the many, many, many, many months of my sentence to figure out what I needed to do to be able to seek forgiveness from both Francine and Luc…Quinn. 

Perhaps once I had served my time and changed my life, I would never again have a Christmas as lonely as those I had inside. 

Put a Little Love In Your Heart (Jackie DeShannon)   
Shelby Cochran PoV  
The months since school started had had an almost surreal level of beauty to them. Quinn and Frannie called every day to talk to me or Beth or both. The three of us have grown incredibly close. Puck, Sam and Mercedes called Beth nightly and check in with me at least once a week. Beth was amazingly happy. In fact even more than happy, she was thriving. She had never wanted for attention, but with all her grandmothers, my mom, Becah, Dani, and Gabby, and grandfathers, myself, David and her aunts and uncles, she was literally never in a situation where there wasn’t an adult or someone there to take care of her physical or emotional needs. But she also had little playmates too. Amara and Amaea were only eight months old, but they were already Beth’s little ‘road dogs’ as Puck termed it. Beth spent mornings at her Montessori preschool and in the afternoon she would go to the Jones’ home. There she would spend her time teaching the twins whatever she learned that day, be it a letter or number or color or word. It was an exercise in patience to pick her up at the end of a long day, because she never wanted to leave her little friends. The three of them would often weep when they had to part. Which given how soft hearted Dani was meant that often Beth would end up sleeping over and Gabby would take her to school when she drive Triple S in to their elementary school. There were days when I would be leaving the school, and I’d get a text from Sander or Benton telling me that the girls were playing and I should just take David and go out. So that is exactly what we would do.

I had not had a long term monogamous relationship since my early twenties. I really had grown to believe that despite having grown up in a home where my parents were deeply, amazingly in love, I just wasn’t hard wired for that type of deep, abiding love…or monogamy. But after being David Martinez’s girlfriend officially for six months, and not having been tempted even once by any other person, I realized that when it was right, love and faithfulness were easy. My life was very, very full. I was a mother, a ‘sister’, an ‘aunt’, a lover, a mentor; I had friends that I could call whenever I needed them, not just being there for them when they needed me. And weirdly enough, it wasn’t just the ‘family’. Shannon and Mark often double dated with David and I. Sue allowed Jean to play with Beth, Mara and Maea at least twice a week. And I don’t know what went down between Emma and Will, but she was so much more human after Thanksgiving break. Shannon and I had to talk her through a slight regression in her OCD therapy, but since the choir rooms and Shannon’s office had never been cleaner, we decided not to let her call it backsliding. 

It was in the midst of all thinking about all of that, as I cleaned my bathroom the Saturday morning before Christmas, when my phone rang. I answered it unthinkingly and was shocked at the voice that came through the line. “Shelby, how are you doing, my amazing former mentor.” Jesse’s voice was calculating. He’d been released after Vocal Adrenaline’s loss at National’s the year before. I hadn’t talked to him since I’d crowed over Rachel and his failed attempt at having us disqualified. 

“I am doing well, Jesse, and yourself.” I rejoined smoothly. 

I could hear something in his voice that worried me. “I am…I am not doing well at all. My father was very unhappy with me when I flunked out of UCLA. He was even less happy with me when I lost the seed money he gave me to start the Show Choir consultant business. Losing my job at Carmel seems to have been the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.” 

This was not happening. “Where are you now Jesse?” I slipped my feet into some shoes. I hated the thought of being seen in public looking like a charwoman, but I really didn’t like the way he sounded in that moment. 

“I’m at the quarry, out near Buckland.” He whispered. 

“Don’t do anything stupid, I’ll be there in forty-five minutes.” I commanded. 

Grabbing Beth and her bag, I texted David to rearrange our Saturday plans. He called me to find out if everything was okay. As I pulled up in front of the Jones house, I realized that I probably should have called them first. When the door opened and Benton stuck his head out, looking a little surprised, but very much more awake than I expected on a Saturday morning, I handed him Beth and her day bag and explained the situation to both Bent and David at the same time. 

“You must help him.” David said quietly in my ear. He said the words, but at the same time I got the feeling that it was just lip service. He knew that he would help a former student if he had the same worry, but at the same time he wasn’t a big fan of my former protégé or my eldest daughter either truth be told.

“Do you really wanna help that little asshole?” Benton said even though as he said it, he was giving Beth to Danica and grabbing his coat. “You are not going out there alone.” 

“Would you like me to join you there?” David asked me gently. 

It threw me for a loop how alike most of the men I knew thought. “Apparently, Benton is not going to let me go by myself.” I smirked at Benton. “Though really I think he is just trying to get out of going in to their office this morning.”

“Hardy har har…” he teased reaching out to take my keys from my hand and lead me to my car. “You’re funny. But the office is closed until after the New Year unless there is an emergency.”

“How often do you have dental emergencies in Lima?” Incredulousness filled my voice. 

Benton shrugged. “More often than you think. Family tensions and pecan pie are hell on teeth.” 

While Benton drove to the quarry, he, David on speakerphone, and I discussed how we would do things. It took some serious discussion but I was finally able to convince them both that Benton could watch from the car and provide security and a witness if needed later. David said that he would meet me at the Jones after I finished dealing with Jesse and we would make an entire day of togetherness. Which would involve cleaning the house…both Quinn and Francine would be home that evening. The house wasn’t dirty, but it was something Mom had always done before I got home from school, or came home for a visit after I had moved to New York. She cleaned so that when I walked in, the fresh smell of home would be there to welcome me. 

However, the time for that would come later. I sighed and stepped out of the car. Jesse was as near to the edge of the overlook as he could get. I thanked all divinity that someone had decided that a railing was a good idea since the last time I had been there, twenty years before. I joined him at the waist high, wooden, safety barrier. “So Jesse, you still take direction pretty well.” I commented neutrally. “Now, why the quarry?”

“There is a fierce, rugged sort of beauty to this place.” he answered. “When I was younger, I would come out here and sing just to hear it echo back to me. My older brother Jordan brought me here, it was our special place…he is the reason that there is a railing now. I got too close to the edge, singing the theme to Histeria…I slipped and almost fell. Jordan pulled me back but then. I have seen it in my head a million times. I still don’t understand how he fell. I don’t think he even screamed. Mine was the only one that echoed back. I ran all the way into town. It’s under a mile, but I wasn’t even seven yet. Jordan was only nine. Today, my father finally said out loud what he has been thinking since that day. It should have been me. Everything would have been better if it had been me. Jordan was everything Dad wanted in a son. The perfect heir…I was just the dumbass singing spare.” He flashed a sardonic smile. “It would have been better if Jordan had lived. Mom hasn’t spared a moment of thought about me since they pulled him from the rocks. Dad tried to make up for it…but I was never sporty enough, or funny enough, or smart enough. Jordan was a winner. He won everything…pie eating contests, soccer games, peewee football…he had more trophies than I ever thought about getting. He was a winner and I’m just a loser.”

I shook my head. “No…you’re a bastard. But you aren’t a loser. You’re a fool…but not a loser. Jordan loved you enough that he made sure you were safe, even at the cost of his life. Would a winner have loved a loser?” I spoke sternly. Jesse was inclined to take any sign of empathy as pity. Pity made him stubborn. “You’ve made some crappy choices. Hell, trying to compete against me with my own formula was just the latest one. But many of those mistakes, I may have had a hand in your believing that they would actually work. I should have told you that college wouldn’t be anything like Carmel. That you would actually have to work for your grades. While I’m at it, I could even say that I should have never created an environment where you didn’t do any of your own work at school and learned nothing at all in our years of high school. But you still have time…” I let that hang for a moment. ‘Come on Jesse’, I thought to myself. ‘Show some life and take the bait.’

“Time for what?” he asked. 

I smiled. “Time to make Jordan’s sacrifice worth it…time to shove your father’s word’s down his throat until he chokes on them. Time to find out who Jesse St. James is when he isn’t being a bastard or a fool.”

He looked at me searchingly, unsure if I was saying what I meant or if I was just trying to talk him down off the ledge. I was leaning towards the first, but honesty compelled me to admit, at least to myself, that the second was definitely present as well. “And exactly how am I to do that. I’ve been cut off. Dad said he will buy me a plane ticket to where ever I want to go, but that is it, and I shouldn’t come back until I have made something of myself.”

“So take his ticket offer. You have to have made some money last year. Take your savings and his ticket. Go to New York. Find a cheap apartment. If you want I can get you a list of places to look…none of them are going to be in Manhattan, unless it’s deep in Hell’s Kitchen, but there is the subway. I know a guy who owns a diner where all the waiters and waitresses sing…he couldn’t decide between his love of cooking and his love of music. Anyway, I’ll put in a good word for you with him. Start auditioning. It will take you a few years to move out of the chorus, but Jesse, you can do it. Just, when you get on the plane, leave your arrogance in the airport.” He looked confused. “You are about to enter the big leagues Jesse. You learned to be a very, very big fish in a tiny ass pond. Now you’re heading into open waters…How well do you think a big mouth bass would fare against a shark?”

He gulped as he took in the look on my face. Yes, I counted myself among those sharks and he’d only fared as well against me as he had because I had come to feel a certain level of responsibility for the way he turned out. “Not well at all.” 

“Exactly. Go to New York, work, audition, if push comes to shove put yourself out there as if you are the best person for the part because you want to learn from those who have worked hard and made it to the top. Directors and casting agents alike eat that shit up. If you are as good an actor as you believe, you should be able to move from the chorus to supporting roles in the next few years.” I told him encouragingly. 

He nodded and asked me for the name of the restaurant and I sent it to his phone along with several areas of the Burroughs where he might be able to find an apartment he could afford. I agreed that he could use my contact information if he needed a reference. I would have connected him with Mills and Francesca, but there was no way he could afford them or the types of properties they usually showed. “Why are you helping me so much?” 

“Jesse, you were my student, my protégé…some of the things I taught you, I have come to realize were the wrong way to look at life. So perhaps I feel like I owe this to you. To help you overcome the bad personality traits that I helped to foster.” 

He nodded. “Well, in any case, thank you.” He smiled. “I suppose that I should warn you. Many of the Vocal Adrenaline parents are talking about moving into the McKinley district. They want their little stars taught by a star-maker,” I cringed at the appellation I had once so coveted. “You are being credited as being the mentor behind KAMA.”

I smiled. “Well then, I guess since I am a ‘star-maker’ and you were one of my protégés you need to go to Broadway and take it by storm.”

We didn’t hug. Neither of us were huggers and the simple truth was that despite the vast amounts of time I had spent mentoring and teaching and training him…we just weren’t that close. Instead, I shook his hand and watched him walk back to his loaded down Nissan Juke. I heard the car pull back out of the gravel lot and sighed again. I had taught him for four years and, while I knew that he’d had an older brother who died, I’d never known that it mattered to him so much. Never realized that he was there when it happened. Never knew that his parents had blamed him, that he had blamed himself. 

Yet, there was nothing that I didn’t know about the kids I taught now. I knew that Tessa wasn’t really looking forward to going to college in New York, she was just doing so because it would actually save her parents money. She wanted to go to the University of Iowa, it had the nation’s best creative writing program…but she hadn’t told Aidan and therefore he hadn’t applied. NYU and Columbia were her second and third choices. Not her first. I knew that Jessica was aching for college because she was tired of being part of the Trio. She loved her friends, but felt that she had no identity outside of them. Kim was totally in love with Steven, but despite the couples and thruples she has seen around her, she really doesn’t believe that high school loves can last. So while he applied to the in-state schools, she’d applied any and every where else. Her top choice was Clemson and I had written her a glowing recommendation. It wasn’t even the ones I had taught for my entire run at McKinley. I knew that Marley was almost obsessively worried about eating healthy because as much as she loves her mother, the thought of being that heavy scared her spitless. I knew that Wade was Unique even though Unique wasn’t Wade and it made her very worried. Over the summer Unique’s aunt and uncle had started the process to fully adopt her and with her on the uncle’s tech culture insurance, they had been able to help her start her medical transition. 

I was pulled out of my ruminations as Benton joined me at the railing. “So you gave the little shit some direction?” 

“I think he and I decided that he is a bastard, but yeah.” I told him with a small smile. “Benton, I created that monster.” I cut him off when he started to object. “Oh, not by myself. His parents had a big hand in it too. But by only caring about advancing his talent, I never found out why he was so focused on being the best. Why he needed the wins so much. He was just trying to prove to his mother and father that he was worthy. Unfortunately, I saw the need without the reason for it and taught him how to achieve the win no matter what.” 

“But since you never addressed the underlying cause…the win would never be enough to stem the gaping wound under it.” Benton finished for me. “Why did you have to go and tell me all that? I was perfectly fine hating that little prick. He called my baby girl lazy and made her feel like she wasn’t as talented and worthy as Rachel.” 

I nodded. I had heard all about Jesse’s consultant business. “He was trying to elevate himself by pulling her down. Same thing Rachel did. In Jesse’s case he was trying to push Rachel up the ladder, believing that if she achieved greatness, she would reach back and pull him up too.”   
Benton rolled his eyes. “No offense, but he expected that of Rachel…Rachel Berry?” 

“We often see only what we’re shown and until she broke, Rachel only showed him what she wanted him to see.” I said honestly. 

He nodded. “Yeah and I guess the Bastard is still young…maybe he will grow out of being a little prick. Come on. Let’s get you home. You want us to keep Beth so you can clean without having her underfoot.” 

“Please. You want to keep her so she can keep Amara and Amaea entertained. I’m hip to your game mister.” I laughed. “Now if you really want to do something to help me out, you can come over and reach the high shelves.” 

“Hell to the no…that’s why I had the boys. So I could stop being Dani’s extra set of hands and longer arms. But I bet you could talk Davie Boy into reaching them for you.” We shared a laugh and headed back to the car. “He still going with you and the girls down to Cleveland to do Christmas dinner with the Gibbses?” 

I nodded. Kyleen and her mother-in-law had determined that since they liked Quinn and Beth, and James loved them, that they were family already and therefore so to were Francine, David and I. But considering that I was really not that great a cook and their invitation meant that I would once again not have to try and fail to cook a proper Christmas dinner. Beth and I had celebrated Chanukah with the Puckermans which saved me from having to cook those nights either. “Yeah. We’re going to head up around nine…get there by about noon.” 

“So how much more do you have left to clean?” 

“I was finishing my room when the phone rang. It was the last thing. I would have had to reclean the kitchen after I made Beth breakfast, but since she ate over at your place.” I threw back with a smile. “So it isn’t too bad. I should still be finished before Frannie shows up and then the three of us will head down to Dayton and pick Quinn up from the airport.” 

Benton Jones was a speed freak. I know that they tease Noah about how fast he drives, but Benton is just as bad. We got back to the Jones house quicker than I thought we should have. I grabbed Beth, who had been fed, watered, bathed, and dressed. I didn’t recognize the outfit, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Dani loved to shop. We made it back to the house in just enough time for me to finish up my bathroom, grab a shower, and get dressed well enough to face the world before Frannie got home. Once she had unpacked, we talked. David popped up. “I just thought that it would be better to make the trip in my Sequoia rather than your little Altima.” I couldn’t disagree. He already had a seat for Beth, he’d gotten it when he realized how much we both hated fighting with that car seat to move it from my car to his. The kiss I laid on him in thanks was probably a little passionate for the fact that we were in front of the girls. But I was not looking forward to driving in Christmas travel traffic around the airport. We all headed to Dayton to get Quinn, stopping on the way to get lunch because David has no problem with food in his car. Watching Frannie teasing Beth while fastening her into the car seat even as she was telling David about all that she had learned that semester, it filled my heart with love. We were not a conventional family, but somewhere along the line, we had definitely become a family. It was certainly shaping up to be a strange, but wonderful Christmas.

Breath of Heaven, Mary's Song (Amy Grant)  
Quinn PoV  
Leaving home after Thanksgiving was so hard. Despite knowing that Beth is with Shelby, living in my home and will be there when I call or head home for a visit, saying goodbye to her is still almost traumatizing. It would have been better if getting back to campus had been more pleasant, but things at Yale did not improve after the November recess. Every time I turned around, there was some new rumor going around about how I was only with James because of his connection to Steve Harvey and how I was using him to further my friend’s music career. At least that was what was going around among the black women on campus. Taylor asked me to allow her to quell that flow of BS and while it took her a little while, she handled it. When I asked her why she felt the need to do so she looked at me and smiled. “They would have heard the things you said, but I’m not sure that they would have really listened. Coming from me…they listened.” I never asked her to tell me what she said to them but the rumors and character assassination stopped. 

The white men were just spouting their usual ‘their stealing our women/have to take back our country’ bullshit. I was in my one hundred level poli sci class when a couple of the WASP boys started directing that garbage at me. Thankfully the professor was having none of it. He pointed out that the first had nothing to do with the second, and the women were not possessions so therefore they could not be stolen. Somehow Biff returned to campus feeling even more entitled to my personage than he had been before I told him to leave me alone. Both James and I were trying valiantly to ignore him and be the better people, but McIntosh seemed to be getting his friends involved in his tormenting us.

I was studying on the quad with Topanga when Biff and three of his friends plopped their happy asses down surrounding me…making me feel boxed in. “So you can hang with a person suitable to be seen with as a known associate.” Biff said as he reached out to tug at my ponytail. 

I twisted away from him tried to stand. But he grabbed my hand and pulled me back down. “First of all, touch me again and I will be forced to remove your hand from your body and since that is probably the only date you can get, I’m sure that you will regret it.” His friends made one of those jock/frat boy sounds that made fun of him for getting ‘told’ but at the same time seemed to declare my actions and word unnecessary. “Second of all…you’re a truly pathetic soul who reminds me far too much of my pathetic soul of a father when you say things like known associates. You have known associates because you have no loyalty or attachment to anyone but yourself. Topanga, Taylor and Kat are my roommates, but more than that they are my friends. Now that being said walk away.” 

“Why should we? It’s a free country. We pay to be here just like you and probably more than any of your welfare case friends.” One of the other guys said maliciously. 

Topanga laughed. “You pay so much to be here because you are too dumb to qualify for any of the scholarships that were given to Kat, Taylor, Max, Brad, and I because we are intelligent and talented. You wouldn’t even be here if your legacy admission requirements were lower than those of us whose parents went somewhere else.” 

I agreed with her statement with a grin that should have frozen Biff’s balls in their sac. “Besides, Harrison, James, Vic and I are all here paying just the same as you…in fact, aren’t you taking advantage of your legacy enrollment so James and Harrison are technically paying more than you which means that they should have more right to walk this campus without having to hear your antiquated and bigoted opinions.” 

“Just because I prefer to associate with people who have had similar life experiences to me doesn’t make me a bigot.” Biff said determinedly.

I looked at him as if he were less worthy of my attention than a bug under my heel. “No, the fact that you believe that you can ascertain what other’s life experiences have been based on the color of their skin is what makes you a bigot. The fact that you undervalue those whose life experiences are different than yours is what makes you a bigot. The fact that you hang out with pricks who feel perfectly fine saying that our country’s duly elected president is less American than his rivals because his skin is brown, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is what makes you a bigot. The fact that you think that you want me even though you don’t know jack shit about me that makes you stupid.”

Topanga was giving me a proud smile. One of the guys sitting there in Biff’s entourage, however, didn’t agree with my statements. “I’m not a bigot. I’m just a proud American. I’m tired of them taking all our jobs and living off the government.” 

“Oh please. A proud American would remember that the basic tenets this nation were found upon were equality and minority rights. The best way to make this country strong is to up hold those original goals of the founding fathers.” She pointed out. 

“Enough of the political debate. What the hell do you mean I don’t know you?” Biff whined. 

“You don’t know anything about me other than the fact that our grandparents knew each other when our grandfathers were attending Yale. You don’t know that I have friends who are Asian, Black and Hispanic. You don’t know that I have been through a traumatic experience that I am still in counseling trying to overcome. You don’t know that for the better part of a year, I lived with my friend Mercedes and her family…all of them black and that they have shown me more respect and love than my perfect good Catholic patents ever have. Apparently Russell couldn’t be bothered to tell your father that he spent last year incarcerated in one of Ohio’s finest country club prisons.” 

He looked appalled until I said that it was one of the country club prisons. “I’m sure that his crime couldn’t have been that bad if he served his time in a white color prison.” 

“He got caught with a seventeen year old hooker.” I said honestly. I was keeping my secrets, but I saw no reason to keep Russell’s. “He took a plea deal to make sure that he would still be able to run his business and to avoid having to register as a sex offender.” 

Another of Biff’s friends looked offended. “Seventeen is old enough.” His accent was refined southern…probably his family’s money was even older than Russell’s. 

“Not in Ohio. I know that some southern states have sixteen as their age of consent, but in Ohio, the age of consent is eighteen.” I answered steadily. 

I could see that they still didn’t quite agree with ‘one of their kind’ being forced to serve time in jail for such a petty crime. But Biff rallied. “We that is hardly reflective of who you are. Your Fabray grandmother was a Lowell and your other grandmother was related to the Astors.”

“That connection was very distant.” I pointed out. And I was fairly sure that it was completely fabricated. “Besides that states who my grandmothers families were, not me and not really them. You care about my pedigree, not about me. James loves me and he truly cares about me and who I am as a person. My actual family, not my sperm donor and surrogate, the family that has supported me when I needed support the most…they adore him and so do I. He is an amazing lover. He understands everything about who I am and why I am the way I am. You’re still a little boy who thinks he is somebody because of something completely outside his control.” I made to stand again and as Biff reached out to pull me back down, I heard a voice I never thought I would appreciate hearing. 

“Quinn has stated her desire for you to leave her alone.” Victor’s voice was quelling and a little bit dangerous. Victor Ryan was still rather unnerving, but he and James got along well. “Now, your father is old school Yale…legacy and all that jazz. I understand it, my family has a similar history down at Boston College. However, that doesn’t give you any right to treat Quinn as a possession. Or to act as a small child denied a toy that he wants. That being said, you don’t really want a relationship with Lucille Quinn Fabray. She sees too much and she is altogether too stubborn, mean and ruthless for you to keep crossing. It would take her very little time to realize that you are a homosexual and are trying to use her as a cover for your relationship with Mr. Pierce over there. She would never allow you to use her that way and you would certainly pay for it dearly.” 

“What…How...I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Biff tried to bluster.

“Really. The four of you are roommates in Berkeley College’s Lanman-Wright Hall. Much like our dorm, you are in a suite of two bedrooms and a common living room. The difference between the dorms being that you all do not share floor bathrooms, each suite has its own. That being said, Mr. Crowley and Mr. Hunter’s room is still set up much as it was at move in. However, you and Mr. Pierce have pushed your beds together and sleep together. According to your neighbors, Mr. Pierce is more vocal than you are Mr. McIntosh, but they hear your name quite regularly and his enough to have pieced together your true inclinations.” He stated smoothly. “Now, considering that your father is currently lobbying Congress to ban the importing of certain types of apples into the US, I doubt that you would want him to be distracted either by you being brought up on harassment charges or on news of your real sexuality getting back to him. So you are going to go and find a new girl to become the next Mrs. McIntosh. Might I suggest Maria Genoni? Yes she is of Italian descent not British, French or Germanic, but her mother is the Dean of your residential college which should prove beneficial. Even better, she is a closeted lesbian and she could be relied upon to keep your secret as long as you are willing to keep hers.”

Victor gave me a hand up and we walked around the table to give Topanga the same courtesy. Biff and Mr. Pierce were not managing to hide the fact that everything Victor had just said was the truth. However, I was surprise to see that his other two roommates didn’t seem surprised. “Thank you Victor.” I said when we were far enough away that Biff and his crew were barely a memory. “You didn’t have to come to my aid. I know that I’ve not really given you a fair shot…that was wrong of me.”

He shrugged it off. “You aren’t entirely comfortable around well to do looking white males.” I started to say something, but he cut me off. “No, it’s okay, I don’t know why you feel that way and you don’t have to tell me. You’ve never been rude and you still make sure that you include me in everything you guys do even though I can tell that I make you uncomfortable. Brad is easy he’s a baby and Drew is an entirely different body type from whoever it was that hurt you. I don’t take it personally. Hopefully, one day we can be real friends. But for now, just know that I will always look out for you because James is my friend and you are very, very important to him.”

“Thank you.” I said. What more could I say. We walked back to our dorm together. There was only one more run in with Biff McIntosh. Later the same afternoon he decided that he would seek his revenge on both James and Victor by harassing Max, their smallest roommate. Max may have been small, but he knew more forms of martial arts than the law should allow. And since Biff started the whole incident and they were very near the Asian Studies building, Max wasn’t even sanctioned or punished for beating the shit out of the idiot that thought he should be king. By the time it was time for us to adjourn from campus for the winter break, Biff rallied and began to date a girl on campus who looked quite a bit like me.

James and I both found finals thrilling and exhausting at the same time. I was upset that since we were still doing finals, I wasn’t able to go down to New York and attend the SongBird premiere event. It was a huge night for my soul sister and I hated that I couldn’t be there for her. But she and I skyped before my finals and I felt at least somewhat connected to her in her moment. When I got the email of the video of their proposal, I almost screamed. I grabbed Taylor and raced out the front door of our suite, barely realizing that Kat and ‘Panga had noticed my crazy behavior and followed us too. We were all in pajamas and slippers, but that didn’t stop me from knocking on James door. “Look!” I shouted happily. 

We all crowded around my tablet. Together the ten of us watched the video and when it was over I literally swooned into James’ arms. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my lips. “They look really happy.” 

“I know. I cannot believe that they are taking such a huge step so soon. But at the same time, for them, it makes perfect sense.” I said happily. 

“That was really sweet.” I heard Topanga whisper. “I need to go call Corey.” She told me to tell Mercedes and her boys congratulations and disappeared to call the man who held her heart. 

Taylor, Harrison and Kat were busy discussing the possible fallout if the press got ahold of the footage. So I told them that from the address bar, it was only sent to Mercedes contacts list and none of us would ever betray her. James agreed easily. “Que’s peeps from back home are amazingly loyal to each other. They are all probably as happy for Mercedes, Sam and Noah as Que is.” 

“Well, maybe not as happy as I am.” I said honestly. “After all I didn’t even consider the fact that you guys could have been asleep already.” 

James’ and his roommates all laughed. Taylor and Kat had ended up following behind Topanga shortly after they wrapped up their conversations with Harrison. They needed their rest. Most of them had flights out the next morning. James and I were flying back to Ohio the following Saturday. James was getting us a room at the Courtyard Marriot again and we would spend three nights together before we had to separate since he was flying directly to Cleveland and my flight was to Dayton. Harrison assured me that they were good with it. “If not for you, we wouldn’t always have the first dibs on information about the newest super group on the scene.” 

We all shared a long laugh at Harrison’s love of entertainment gossip. James walked me back to my room and kissed me goodnight. I realized that I had missed the rampant round of congratulation texts aimed at Mercedes, Sam and Puck. So I sent my own and had a lovely dream about what it would be like if James and I were to become engaged. Suffice it to say, when I awoke there was a huge smile on my face. If only it could have lasted longer. By the time James and the guys came up to help us get our stuff down to his, my and Kat’s cars so we could drive everybody to the airport, before coming back and checking ourselves into the hotel while Kat drove home, we discovered that the news of the engagement had broken in all the wrong places. 

“Well ain’t this about a bitch.” James growled when the local news played a clip from Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. “That hypocritical asshole has been married so many times he alone is responsible for the ‘destruction of the sanctity of marriage’.”

I gnawed on my thumb nail…a bad habit I thought I had left behind in childhood. “Is there anything we can do? I mean we need to show our support for them right. What’s the best way to do it?”

James looked thoughtful. “Let’s hurry up and get checked in. we can call one of the news stations from the room.”

So that is exactly what we did. As soon as we checked in and got our small duffels up to our room, James looked up the local Fox TV station and I used my cell phone to give them a call. It took them some time to patch my through to speak on air. “We have on the phone, one of the classmates of KAMA group members Sam Evans, Mercedes Jones and Noah Puckerman. Lucille Quinn Fabray graduated from William McKinley High School in Lima Ohio. Ms. Fabray is currently attending Yale University. Good Morning Ms. Fabray.” 

“Good Morning Mr. Jennings.” I returned smoothly. 

“So given the news surrounding KAMA this morning, you called in to speak with us. The floor is yours.”

“Thank you. I called in because I have had the pleasure of being a close personal friend of all three members of KAMA. I have actually spent short amounts of time as the girlfriend of both Noah and Sam before they found their way into a relationship with Mercedes. I lived with the Jones family when my own kicked me out of my childhood home because I didn’t live up to their expectations. This morning I have heard certain radio show hosts and other political pundits trying to politicize KAMA’s relationship and interject their opinions into a matter that is, quite frankly, none of their business.”

“Did you not see the video? The members of KAMA are trying to completely…” 

I cut the talking head that was skyped into the station off. “They are trying to show their love and commitment to each other. If you make note each of them said that they know they cannot legally marry but they would I they could. They are not asking for any laws to be rewritten. They are not asking for any government to recognize their commitment. They are just professing that they love each other and want to be together always. How that impacts anyone outside their relationship, family and friends is a mystery to me.” 

The pundit squawked. “God said that marriage should be between one man and one woman.” 

“Really, because King David, the man God said was a ‘man after His own heart’ had many wives.” I pointed out. “In fact polyamory and polygamy were rampant throughout the Bible. But again I point out that they are not trying to get married by the legal definition thereof. They are simply saying that they will have no other people in their lives in the romantic sense.” James passed me a tablet with the bio of the pundit pulled up. I gave him a wicked grin. “Jesus spoke against divorce and adultery, but you seem to have no problem engaging in both of those. Three divorces and four wives, not to mention all three divorces were on the grounds of adultery…you really want to pick up that stone sir. Or did you miss John eight and seven.”

The guy just sputtered. “The travesty of this shall not be brushed aside.” 

“You are right, a travesty had been committed here… and as soon as we in the Evans/Jones/Puckerman camp learn who leaked what should have been a beautiful and private expression of their love and commitment…you can believe that we will make sure that they understand what a travesty they have perpetrated.” 

Mr. Jennings quickly thanked us both and got us off the air before I could make their ‘expert’ look anymore asinine and stupid. James pulled me up and into a big hug. “Uncle Steve said that he and his crew had gone to bat for them too. In fact most of the media people she spoke with when they were doing the SongBird promotions are falling in on KAMA’s side.”

“That’s great. We should totally celebrate.” I whispered leaning up to kiss his lips. We celebrated for hours. Then we got up, ran out and grabbed dinner, which we brought back to the room so that we could watch the NYADA Winter Showcase which was streaming live on the school’s website. After sending Kurt texts telling him how great a job he had done, we celebrated some more. We really spent the next three days just talking and deciding what we wanted for ourselves and our relationship. We decided to keep taking things day by day. While we were pretty close to positive that we had found our forever in each other, the last thing we wanted to do was cause future problems by rushing things at that point. Friday night we went back to Zinc, since James paid for the room, I bought us dinner. It was a marvelous time and the food was truly amazing. 

After dinner we went for a long walk to the nearest theater and watched Mercedes amaze us both in SongBird before we finally headed back to our room. We made love several more times before checkout the following morning. Saying good bye in the airport was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. But we knew that we truly loved each other and we would be together again on Christmas day…so it made it bearable. The flight was short, only an hour and a half, and when I disembarked and got to baggage claim, it was to see my daughter and sister along with Shelby and David waiting for me. I had missed them all so much even though I talked to Shelby and Beth almost daily and texted with Frannie just as often, heck I even checked in with David by email at least once a week because I knew that he worried. Holding Beth reminded me that she was growing by leaps and bounds every day. We made it back to Lima just in time to have dinner at Breadstix.   
When we got home and settled for the evening, Frannie came into my bedroom. “Mom wants to be able to send us letters and stuff.” 

I raised an eyebrow. “What is she feeling all sentimental at the holidays? How do you even know? We have that no contact order in place.” 

“Yeah, but she can call Uncle Justin. He shot me an email because he felt that I would be the most sympathetic to her plight.” Frannie’s smile told me how little she appreciated that bull-hockey. 

“Where is Uncle Justin anyway? He didn’t come for her trial. Heck, I haven’t seen him in years.” I asked as I thought over the gall of both my mother and her brother. 

“He’s still in Hawaii playing at hotelier.” She returned. “Mom didn’t tell him about the trial. The first sentence of his email was trying to find out why she was in jail in the first place. Anyway, I told him that we’d decided that Mother was entirely too toxic to have in our lives and we would not be contacting or visiting her or any thing else.”

I didn’t have anything else to add to that so I changed the subject to our other parent. “Has Dad tried to contact you?” 

She shook her head. “Not since Shelby called to tell me that the package Mr. Patterson told us to look out for had arrive. They were our Christmas gifts. She put them under the tree. I sent him a thank you not via email. I figure if it’s a really good gift, I can send him an actual card after I see what it is.” 

I couldn’t fault her logic. “My counselor said that there is a reason we feel more able to have any kind of relationship with Russell and not have any at all with Judith.” 

“Really? Why?” 

I sighed. “Think back to when we were little if one parent was going to the club and taking the girls, only one of them actually took both of us.” I reminded her. 

“Yeah, Mom would always find some reason just to take me. In fact whenever we were going in public if it was just three of us it was you, me and dad.” She answered thoughtfully. 

“I wasn’t ever good enough for Mother and she always tried to force you into a specific mold.” I explained. “You add overall only a good mother in public to the fact that she has no remorse for what happened…”

“Yeah, Russell at least seems to be trying to make up for his actions and he did take the plea bargain so no one would have to know what happened to you. But for the solicitation charge, he’d have only served ninety days tops.” I nodded. I had reasoned that one out as well. 

“I don’t think that I ever want either of them to be a part of our lives again…but I think I can let go of the anger. I think that I can finally forgive Russell…not for his benefit, but for mine.” I acknowledged. “After all that happened…I refuse to let him ruin my chances at heaven too.”   
Frannie talked late into the night. It was nice having her as the sister I’d longed for for most of our lived. The next morning, she, Beth and I met David at church and sat through Mass together. Shelby was Jewish and we celebrated Chanukah and the other Jewish holidays with her, and she celebrated the Christian ones with us, but Frannie and I hadn’t gone to temple with her and she’d not come to Mass with us. That might change in the future, but for the moment it worked for us. 

After Mass, Mr. Patterson came up to us and wished us a Merry Christmas. “Do you still have the prepaid Visa’s your father had me give you in the summer?” we both assured him that we did. He handed me an envelope. “Good. That one is for the baby. Russell has put twenty five hundred on each of them for you all for Christmas.” 

“But he sent us gifts already?” Frannie asked quietly. 

Mr. Patterson nodded. “He was comfortable shopping for the gifts he sent, but he wasn’t comfortable buying clothing for the three of you and he said it was something of a tradition for you to have new wardrobes after Christmas.” 

Frannie and I exchanged looks. That was one very pleasant tradition that I had certainly missed the year before. Mom, Frannie and I would always drive to Columbus the day after Christmas and have a girls shopping day at the Easton Town Center. It was always so much fun. The year before, Mom had said that there was no way we could do it since Daddy hadn’t given her any money for it. But now I wonder if that was true or not. “I, I…can you please let Russell know that we do appreciate his gifts.” 

He nodded. “I have an envelope here for Ms. Cochran. But it is just a gift card for Nordstroms. He wanted to get the baby’s adoptive mother something, but he doesn’t have any of her information so he couldn’t get her the same kind of cards you have.” 

“I’m sure that she will enjoy it. We can make it a girls’ day, like it used to be.” I told him accepting the last envelope. 

Mr. Patterson nodded. “Russell asked me to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and to let you know that he bought your friends’ CD and will see the movie on Friday. I think that he hopes to one day be able to speak to you himself, but he acknowledges that that day will probably be pretty far in the future, if it ever comes.” 

Frannie and I exchanged long telling looks. “Mr. Patterson, while we’ve both forgiven Russell Fabray for his actions…we are not going to ever be able to forget them.” Francine said quietly. “I will not subject my little sister or niece to ever being in that man’s presence.”   
He simply nodded. “As I said. He understands that it may never happen. Now you ladies have a Merry Christmas. I’ve taken up enough of your time.” 

“Thank you Mr. Patterson. You and your family have a Merry Christmas as well.” We told him honestly. 

As we walked away Frannie sighed. “I hate being mean to him. I know that he is just doing his job…but sometimes I really wish that Russell would just leave us alone.”   
I nodded. “Yeah, but the more he does the more I wonder about why he didn’t do anything last Christmas.” 

David looked at us quietly. “Perhaps he did. If he didn’t realize that the funds would not reach you if he gave them to your mother.” 

I rolled my eyes. “She was very, very happy last Christmas.” 

Francine nodded. We headed home, stopping to grab brunch from Sugar Street. The days before Christmas were filled with shopping for Christmas gifts and Christmas Eve dinner and family time spent either in our house or at the Jones. I managed to avoid the morning workouts that my friends were engaged in and spent my mornings with Beth, Shelby and Frannie. Christmas Eve, I made dinner for the five of us and we had family night. Frannie was seeing a new guy, but they weren’t Christmas conversation serious yet, so they talked on Christmas Eve. David spent the night so that we could wake up and open our gifts all together. 

David woke us all up around five thirty, he was officially more excited than Beth was and she was the one getting all the toys. “Okay, so since Christmas is really for the Kiddies, we’ll let Beth open one from each of us then we’ll each open a gift…then we’ll just go all in for a total free-for-all.” David suggested. None of the rest of us were awake enough to come up with any better ideas, so we went with it. 

David pulled an adorable little pink classic Radio Flyer toddler tricycle out complete with a little bell she could ring and everything. Beth’s squeal woke Shelby, Frannie and me all the way up. She loved it. So much so that Shelby had to give her gift to Beth while she was still seated on the thing. The gift box was pretty big and when it was unwrapped, it showed a Crayola Play n’Fold art studio set. Beth squealed and clapped happily. She probably would have started to play with it right then and there if she hadn’t realized that there was more wrapping paper to be ripped off of things. I went next. Beth wasn’t sure what to make of the Leap Frog learning tablet, but the box was pretty and she could point at the logo and say ‘Frog’…so I counted it as a win. Frannie had gotten her a Fisher Price Little Peoples town set. It was really great. Dad had included a gift for Beth in the box that he had sent for me and Frannie. She opened the medium sized box from Russell to find books. He had gotten her the complete Seuss Library and every Shel Silverstein book ever published. 

We all shook our heads. Russell had always had a bad habit of doing that. The accidental purchase of the perfect gift. Beth wouldn’t even let Shelby open her first gift until she had read her a book. Thankfully she was satisfied after one reading of ‘Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You’. Frannie handed me my gift from her. I opened it to find a digital frame with pictures of us from when we were younger and from more recently. There were even pictures of Beth and Shelby and the Jones and David and all the people who were special to me. It was great. Beth toddled over and handed Frannie a gift bag. My little girl had given her Aunt a special gift that was one of those little wooden plaques inset into one of those little hand print plaster things. It read ‘Diamonds are Precious but an AUNT like you is Priceless’. Frannie smile and cried and hugged Beth so tight the poor baby started to squirm. Since David hadn’t opened anything yet, I found him the gift bag I’d placed his gift in. He pulled out a smedium graphic tee shirt that read ‘Super Papi’. David Martinez’s smile was huge and blindingly beautiful as he pulled off the tank top he’d been wearing and pulled the new shirt over his head. Then he put his hands on his hips and posed as if he were Superman. Since Shelby was the only one not to have opened a gift at that point, David handed her his gift. She unwrapped a small box to find a smaller, velveteen box inside. He had gotten her a gorgeous platinum and diamond Star of David necklace. 

After that it really was a free for all. It took us an hour and a half to get everything opened. Russell had out done himself. He had given Frannie another pair of diamond stud earrings, this time they were shaped like roses. So far, as much as I could remember she had hearts, stars, squares, ovals, round, triangles. She collected the damn things. He had gotten me beautiful peridot and diamond rosary and rosary box. I had collected them when I was younger, back before Judith had decided that I needed to focus more on practical things like real jewelry, like Frannie did. It must not have cost as much as Frannie’s earrings though because he also gave me a new iPad Air. Russell had always been pretty big on equal treatment of ‘his girls’. He would always make sure to curb Judith’s desire to buy Francine tons of pretty clothes and accessories and Lucille, chubby, spotty Lucy, hardly anything at all. Mother always had a reason, usually not being able to find anything in my size that was cute or pretty and the fact that it all changed when I lost weight did make it seem like it wasn’t her fault at the time. But knowing Mercedes had shown me that it was Judith choice to punish me for not being perfect and not the stores size or clothing selection. 

I shook off melancholy thoughts and we all raced up to get dressed. I think Beth was the only one we worried about feeding, because when we arrived at Ms. Kyleen’s house we were all starving except the baby. Ms. Kyleen must have figured out that we were morons, though because I swear we’d barely gotten our coats off and put our purses down before she was shoving food at us. “Eat up quick Beth has a whole bunch of things under the tree waiting on her.” She smiled. “James got happy.” 

Sure enough after two awesome breakfast burritos, we were all seated in front of the Gibbs’ massive Christmas tree which still had ten or eleven boxes and more gift bags under its branches. I scrambled back to my feet and ran and grabbed the bag with our gifts for Ms. Kyleen and everyone else from the back of David’s Sequoia then resumed my seat next to James. His sisters were chilling, Beth had climbed into Nonna’s lap and was happily showing her the ‘Frog’ that she had brought with her. James and I exchanged smiles. It still warmed my heart too see Beth enjoying time with a grandmother that I had a connection to, even if the connection wasn’t officially official at that point in time. The girls gave her their gifts first, games that she could play like Memory and Candyland and Shoots and Ladders. We had gotten Billie the entire Princess Diaries, Hunger Games and Divergent series. I was hopeful that directing her love of reading to something less sexual would help her maintain her innocence for as long as possible. I had helped James pick out a gorgeous sweater for Marie and she was already wearing it. From me she got a pretty handbag that would go with the sweater no matter what shoes she decided to wear. Frannie got her a bakery cookbook, she knew how much Marie liked to bake. Shelby and David had gotten her a nice crystal picture frame. Ms. Kay got a digital frame from Frannie. It mainly had pictures of Beth in it so far, but there was plenty of room for her to add new pictures too. The rest were a strange blur. James had gone overboard and I ended up with three presents, one of which was a fairly expensive watch. Beth ended up with five pretty fun, but expensive toys including a special tablet just for kids called NAVI. James sisters and Ms. Kay went for clothing. My little girl was lucky as hell. She got two Christmases on Christmas day, then she would have another one with her Abah, Papa and MeDe before we all had to go back to school. 

Christmas dinner was amazing. The rest of our visit flew by in a haze of comradery and teasing. The whole rest of the break flew by. James had to go to Chicago after Christmas to do some things for the Steve Harvey talk show. He sent me a picture of him holding up the Diesel Unisex Mini Daddy Stainless Steel Bracelet Watch I had given him for Christmas against the departures panel which definitely showed that his flight was delayed even though the board said it was ‘on time’. I loved how silly he could be some time. The New Directions were in KAMA’s mini-movies. Then it was back to campuses across the nation for all of us. I was relaxing in James’ arms, trying to get the energy to head up to my dorm room after we’d finished a movie in his living room when my phone chimed with news that shook me to my very core and all I could do was cry and pray.


	7. Some Day at Christmas (Stevie Wonder)/All I Want For Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey)

Some Day at Christmas (Stevie Wonder)  
Danica PoV

There is nothing I love more than having a full house at Christmas, but that first year MeDe and her boys were in college things got to be more than a little ridiculous. Monday morning, after Ruth and the kids had headed back to Manhattan after coming to meet Baby Sloane; I had an early morning surprise. Jake Puckerman showed up at our door with what turned out to be all his worldly possessions in bags and boxes around his feet and tears streaming down his face. “I can’t live like that anymore Moms D. She said if I absolutely refused to visit Paul with her…which I did, why the hell would I want to see that thing that calls himself a man… then I could just find somewhere else to live. Moma Becah wasn’t at her house…and she didn’t know how to get to George and Tessa’s…I didn’t know where else to go.” He was trying so hard to stay steady and act like a grown up, but in his eyes all I could see was a scared little boy.

I couldn’t help but pull that boy into my arms. “Bent, Sander…” I yelled back into the house. When they arrived a few minutes later, I was still hugging Jake for all he was worth, and no matter what Alicia Michaels thought, he was worth a million of his deadbeat fathers. I quickly and very quietly explained what was going on. They hauled in Jake’s things while I held him, though we did make it inside and to the sofa, which was a lot easier on my arms. Jake may not have been as tall as my boys, but he was still whole lot taller than I was. I don’t know who finally called Rebecah and George, but they arrived with Tessa and Sarah within the hour.

No sooner had I released Jake to be hugged and coddled by Rebecah than the doorbell rang again. If I was surprised to see Jake at the door with his whole life, it was nothing compared to the absolute shock of seeing my niece, Hannah, visibly pregnant at my door. “Hannah, are you okay? How on earth did you get here? How did you even know how to get here? It’s been ten years since the last time you came to Lima.”

She took a shaky breath, “Hey Aunt Danica, can I come in? It’s kind of a long story.”

“Oh, of course Honey…no matter what you are always welcome here.” I told her. No matter what problems she had, she was still my family. I would always want to do all I could to help her.

She came in pulling just a rolling carry-on so I felt sure that her problem would be somewhat easily solvable. “How far along are you?” I was very curious. I’d seen her over the summer at the family reunion and again at Devon and Tonya’s wedding, she hadn’t been pregnant then as far as I knew, but looking at her now I had to question that conclusion. Rather than taking her into the living room where Rebecah and the others were sorting out Jake, I took her into the kitchen and started to make us all some tea.

“I just past twenty –four weeks. But I’m having twins…they are both boys and they are really, really healthy.” Hannah said with a sad smile. “I managed to keep it from Mother until it was too late for her to try and convince me not to keep them.”

“Oh, Hannah…why on earth would she do that? Arielle is very image conscious, I know, but those are her grandbabies.” I tried to defend my sister. Twenty two weeks…that would have been right around Devon’s wedding.

“Because, their daddy is…” She took a deep breath before plunging on as if she were jumping into the deep end of a half frozen pool. “You know Uncle Benton’s cousin the one who lives in DC?”

I nodded. One of Benton’s second cousins, Franklin, worked on Capitol Hill as a lobbyist for the automotive industry. “Oh, Hannah, Franklin is almost old enough to be your father.” I sighed. At forty to her twenty three, it was close, but biologically possible. Thankfully, he was as yet unmarried…the only one of that whole generation that hasn’t married. He had always said that he wouldn’t settle for less than what all his cousins had. “And I know how Arielle feels about dark skinned men. I had thought you felt the same way too.”

She smiled deviously. “Oh Aunt Danica…I only bring light skinned men to the reunions because Mother would kill me if she actually saw any of the guys I’ve really dated since I went to school. Reggie and I only really see each when I’m having trouble in school, he needs a non elitist friend to bring him back down to earth or I need to appease Mother.”

“So if you aren’t color struck, why the hell are you always so evil to my Baby?” My voice was not at all calm, so I tried to soothe my nerves by preparing the tea for the water once it boiled.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve always been jealous of MeDe. She has been the apple of her daddy’s eye since the second she was born…my daddy won’t even acknowledge that I exist. She gets better grades than I ever did and everyone always loves her. She doesn’t have to barely eat to fit what you think she should look like…you don’t seem to care at all.” She took a deep breath and confessed; “besides it made Mother happy with me when I did it.”

“Oh my sister and I are gonna have to have some serious words about that shit.” I muttered. “Well, I guess this Christmas will give you a good opportunity to make amends.” I told her. “Now…I take it your mother now knows that you are pregnant.”

Hannah nodded sadly. “She took it great until…well, she didn’t take it very well when I told her that not only was I pregnant, but I wouldn’t tell her who the father was other than that it wasn’t Reggie. But I have heard how she talks about Uncle Benton…Franklin is so nice and he’s kind and sweet, but you know, he makes Benton look light skinned. Oh, but Aunt Danica…he treats me like Uncle Benton treats you. I’m still surprised that he even talked to me since he seemed to know all about how I’ve behaved with Mercedes. But he says that he loves me.”

I shook my head with a smile. “Hannah, I’ve known Franklin Jones for a very long time. If he says that he loves you…then he doesn’t just love you…he is in love with you. Has he been going to the doctor appointments with you?”

She smiled and nodded happily. “Every single one…we even go out to lunch afterwards, rather than him just rushing back to work. He’s been amazing.”

“Then it is true love. Franklin would rather spend a day in my chair than spend five minutes near an MD. He hates doctors…a lot. When his cousin Lisa graduated medical school he sent her a picture of himself…because he swore it would be the only way she saw him from then on.” We shared a smile. “So where is Franklin…I’m surprised that he let you fly without him.”

She shook her head. “Mother wanted to have Christmas in LA this year…somewhere warm and sunny…like Christmas is supposed to be warm and sunny. After I wouldn’t answer her questions or agree to put the babies up for adoption so that they wouldn’t ‘ruin my life’, she just pointed at the door. So I left. I didn’t have enough to change my ticket to DC on my credit card, but I could fly into Cincinnati and rent a car. I called and told Franklin where I was going. He’s trying to get a ticket out here for the holiday. Is it okay if I stay?”

I walked around the table, pulled her to her feet and gave her a hug. “Honey, you’ve been welcome to stay since I opened the door and saw the trouble in your eyes. You’re my niece…my blood. I don’t care how much wrong you’ve done…if you need help and it’s in my power to help you…I always will. I might have to snatch your mother bald…but I will never turn you away if you need me. However, if you tell me that you haven’t bought Mede’s soundtrack…”

Her head bobbed emphatically. “I made everyone I know buy it. Reggie even gave his all the students in classes bonus points if they could prove that they had gotten a copy and obtained it legally. And if they preordered their tickets for opening weekend of the movie and brought him the receipt, they got to use their notes on the final. He loves Mede and her guys. He even included Avatar in one of his lecture series thanks to that dissertation MeDe’s blondie bear gave at dinner the first time they came with you guys to the reunion.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Sam would be so very proud. I led her into the living room and introduced her to those of our family she had yet to meet. Benton looked up from his phone. I could see something in his eyes as he looked at Hannah; shock was too mild a word. “Well, Hannah…umm…Franklin asks that we help you out until he can get here…he wasn’t able to get a flight until the twenty first.”

“Thank you Uncle Benton. I know this isn’t… I mean…I know that I haven’t always been very likable. I’m sorry.” She said humbly. “I guess I was always so jealous…you’re a great uncle even though I was really bitchy…and you’re a great dad.”

Benton crossed to take Hannah in his arms before she could start to cry. Pregnancy does that to women, makes us all weepy…but probably an apology that bad needed some tears to drive home the feelings of remorse. “Hey, you were a little girl following the lead of her mom. It seems that you are a lot less bitchy now that you’re thinking for yourself. Besides, you’re carrying two Jones-Harrises at the same time…any payback is gonna be gotten by them.” he teased. At the look on her face he just laughed. “Oh Darlin’ niece of mine…you have no idea how stubborn that genetic combination actually is. Just you wait…you’re gonna need to get a vice…red wine works…helps calm your nerves and its good for your heart. But I’ll make you a deal…after all the babies are weaned and maybe potty trained, once a year you take Mara and Maea and Slone for a week, and we’ll take those two little knuckleheads of yours off your hands for two.”

“Oh you so have a deal.” She chuckled.

Unfortunately, it was a weekday and we all had to get to work. Benton and Sander helped George and Jake carry his things to George’s truck. Jake would move in with them until he either made up with his mother, or decided to do something else. There was talk about having him seek emancipation after he turned sixteen and Rebecah would rent him her house for a hundred dollars a month. I had another thought in mind about that. But I didn’t get a chance to have the time to talk to Becah about it until a few days later. I had scheduled us all an afternoon at the spa for us the Friday of the movie opening. And after dealing with the release of MeDe, Sam and Noah’s engagement video, and the internet trolls and all that drama…we needed it, badly. On top of all that Gabby was happy to have a couple of hours where she could just be, let someone else take care of her. It had been a long time since she’d had a new born, and this week had been very hard on her. As we moms were all getting our pedicures, I broached the subject of the house with Becah. “I know that you were thinking about having Jake move into your old place Becs…but what about selling it to Noah, Mede and Sam instead of renting it to Jake. I’m sure that they would let him live there full time if that is still the best option once he’s sixteen…but it would give them somewhere here at home that they can share and give us back a guest room.”

Becah looked thoughtful. “A brand new house could give them a nice tax shelter for next year also. Not as nice as if they were just making regular people money, but still it would lessen a little of their tax burden.”

Gabby laughed. “Plus it would give them a way to share the wealth. They could pay Kurt to do his thing, and George and Jake and the other boys could be their work crew.”

I hadn’t even considered that. “They will love helping their friends have pocket money. And who knows maybe one of them will find their calling. Can’t you just see Finn or Jake being the face of HGTV ten years from now?”

“Jake would have more panties tossed at him than both of the Scott brother combined.” Gabby shot back.

“Hey now.” Becah called foul. “That’s kind of, sort of my son you’re talking about there. No you know what…Alicia wanted my ex-husband so much…she can have him…I’m keeping her son. So yeah, Jake’s mine now. So keep it g-rated please.”

I looked thoughtful for a long second. “If you’re serious about keeping Jake…we should call Antwan and see if there is something we can legally do to protect you from her claiming some old bullshit later.” I grabbed my phone and shot off a quick email asking Antwan exactly what we needed to do to cover all out asses before Alicia pulled some Rachet type deal and tried to have us arrested for kidnapping or something. While I waited so patiently for him to get back with me, I returned the attention to discerning the possibility of my suggestion being approved. “So, you think you’re gonna sell the kids your house…yea or nay?”

“Are you asking so that you can plan how to convince them that it was their idea in the first place?” Gabby shot back with a grin.

I shrugged. “That and because if Sam decides to buy you guys a place, I don’t want Becah’s to be where his mind goes…that’s too far for you to take Sloane, Stevie and Stacey away from Maea and Mara.” I confessed honestly.

We all shared a laugh at the simple truth I’d spoken. As we were making the final decision on our pedicure polish colors, my phone alerted me to an email from Antwan. I read it through and forwarded it to both George and Rebecah…’Twan had cleared some time on Monday to speak with them and Jake about getting something officially down on paper. Rebecah read her phone sent ‘Twan a confirmation and gave me a relieved smile. I was a little surprised when the smile turned into a bit of a frown. “Guys, we need to talk about what we’re going to do when the kids get here tomorrow. I wanted to throw them a party or something, but George thinks that with everything that’s gone on in the media with the talking heads that maybe they won’t want to really do anything but relax with the family.”

Gabby looked thoughtful, “George might well have a point. I mean even beyond the drama that entitled little heifer caused, they just finished their first set of college finals. They had the premiere this week, and I’m sure that they are going to be exhausted from their meeting today and we all know they are going to go see the movie tonight too. Maybe we should at least give them this week to rest up and try to plan something for the week between Christmas and New Year’s maybe the twenty eighth…plus by then the first weekend numbers will be out so it can be an overall the kids are all together again, Sam, MeDe and Noah are engaged, the movie hit big, holiday celebration kind of party.”

“That’s a great idea. Plus everyone can bring some left overs and no one will be left being haunted by the remains of Christmas dinners past.” I mused. “But what if the movie doesn’t do so well?”

Rebecah laughed. “There is an article on Yahoo’s front page about the kids’ controversy and it talks about Mercedes’ role in the movie and how Noah and Sam were extras. This movie is going to have a huge opening weekend for the same reason that the sales on the soundtrack and singles are up so high…even people who wouldn’t usually go for this type of movie will want to see it just so they aren’t the only ones at the office or school or wherever that haven’t seen it.”

“I think I’ve been mentally preparing myself to be there for MeDe if the movie doesn’t have a big opening weekend, I don’t have any idea what I will need to do if it does well.” I admitted.

“Do the same thing I’m planning on doing either way, remind her to be happy that she had this amazing experience and help her to focus on the next thing she needs to conquer.” Rebecah advised.

That sounded like the perfect advice. We finished up and raced home. Every member of our family the Joneses and Hannah, the Puckerman-Altmans, the Evanses all got dressed and made sure that the twins and Sloane were bathed, fed and soothed into a perfect state of sleepiness. We headed out to Lima’s biggest movie theater, the Regal America Mall Stadium 12 Cinema at the mall and met up with the rest of our New Direction family, the Hudson-Hummels, the Zizes and Vince, the Cohens, Andersons, Pierces, Lopezes, Abrams, Berrys, minus Rachel of course, the entire Fabray-Cochran crew including David who’d brought along Sue, Emma, Shannon and Mark.

I smothered a smile at the memory of what had happened when Cooter had tried to show up at McKinley to recruit some of the new seniors. Mark had been there helping Shannon with the team’s conditioning. Suffice it to say that by the time Mark finished with Cooter, the douche bag had to spend three days in the hospital; there was talk of assault charges and the beating Benton had given the prick the year before seemed like a friendly sparring session. I have no clue what happened between the two of them, but Shannon seemed happier and more comfortable in her own skin that I had ever seen her before. And the McKinley Titans were once again the state title holders for their division. 

The theater had SongBird showing on two screens, we peeped into the showing that had already begun in the other stadium theater and it was packed. We ourselves got good seats, mostly together, but our viewing chamber filled very soon thereafter. Now the secret to bringing babies to a movie is to make sure they are comfortable, sleeping and that their ears are protected from the loud sounds in today’s theatres. That was easier accomplished for Sloane than for Amara and Amaea, but my girls were so enraptured by the songs, of which there were the perfect amount, by seeing their big sister on the screen in front of them, of which there wasn’t quite enough, and by being cuddled by anyone who wanted to hold them and whom we trusted with their care, of which there were just enough…almost our whole family…that they barely made a sound through the entire two hour and eleven minute running time. Sloane was nursed about halfway through, but since Gabby was breast feeding and the theater was darkened, there was no need to disturb anyone. I think Sander even did the post feeding diaper change in his lap so that he wouldn’t miss a single second.

As we were all exiting the theater, Chris Pierce looked around and chuckled. “Okay, I’ll be the one to say it…I’m so relieved that the movie was actually, really good.”

Artie laughed too. “I knew it was gonna be, but man I am happy that it lived up to all the hype I built. I’m a film major, if the movie had sucked after how much I’ve been talking it up around campus, I’d have been screwed.”

Santana popped him on the back of his head. “You are so gonna have to look Cede in the face and tell her that you didn’t believe in her.” She said sternly.

“I wasn’t worried about Mercedes’ acting ability.” Antwan pointed out. “I’ve seen her in things at church. The worry was about the script and the movie itself. Movies made for the black community have a history of not having very much to work with in the storyline or the overall production values. But this, this was a major motion picture whose cast just happened to be predominately black. There is a world of difference.”

Benton nodded. “Yeah, there wasn’t the usual preponderance of baby rape. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen in the black community just like it does in the white, but if you only watched Tyler Perry movies you’d think it happened every single day, in every black home everywhere.”

Hannah agreed too. “Reggie has made that same complaint. He figures that Mr. Perry was sexually abused as a child so he writes what he knows. I think that unfortunately his psyche is also trying to make it less painful by making it more prevalent.”

I had to admit that I felt a surge of pride in my niece. I’d never heard her speak so intelligently before. “I just hope the opening weekend is a big enough splash to get Hollywood to make more movies like this. We need them.” I said with a small proud smile. “Now who is hungry?”

We all were. We’d gone to the earliest evening showing so once we picked a restaurant and headed that way; we found that there was little wait, despite the gargantuan size of our party. After we’d all place our orders and gotten settled, I told them of the decision that Gabby, Becs and I had reached earlier about having something for all the families on the twenty-eighth. “That sounds great. Tina and Mike won’t make it home until Monday afternoon at the earliest.” Madeline Cohen said with a grin. “So they won’t have any time to see their friends until after Christmas. This will be a nice way to do it.” soon we all dissolved into a discussion of the best place to hold the event and how to manage the pot luck portion.

While Michael only nodded, Julia and Madeline had big fun chatting about how much they missed their children and couldn’t wait until they got home. Freddie was even worse. He’s always wanted a son, but he and Madeline hadn’t been able to qualify under the American adoption system because he’d had some significant medical issues over the years. Mike never minded doing those kinds of father son things with Freddie. I think that he liked having someone to do them with too. Freddie was much like Tina, he lived life to the very fullest and while he was getting a lot better, Michael was still pretty reserved. I looked around the table at our friends. Since Antwan was having a bit of a pre-meeting with Rebecah, he was seated next to me. I was a little surprised when he turned to me and chucked me with his shoulder. “So be honest with me…your baby was on her way out the door when you got pregnant again, would you change anything?”

“You and Hi still thinking about trying to have another baby?” I asked quietly. When he nodded I smiled. “Twan, I wouldn’t change a thing that has happened in the last two years…well, I’d try to keep your eldest from selling that video and bringing so much drama…but Maea and Mara and Sloane and everything else, wouldn’t change those for the world. I think that you and Hi deserve the chance to be fathers again. You deserve to experience the perfect, unconditional love that children give you. You two never meant to only have Rachel. It isn’t too late for you to have a couple of more. Though do me a favor, hell do your surrogate a favor, find someone young…cause my body is not bouncing back the way it did with the boys and MeDe.” I teased.

“But at least the girls are completely healthy, right?” he pressed.

I nodded. We’d really gotten lucky. There were a whole host of problems that my advanced age could have caused my two youngest daughters. I’d had horrible nightmares about each and every one of them. But then my girls had arrived and while we’d done some of the possible tests, we hadn’t done the invasive ones, so their perfect health had been a bit of a surprise. “Yes, they were a little small at birth but that was due to there being two of them.”

“Hi and I are starting to look into surrogates again. But the agencies are even more annoying this time around because of our age and the fact that we have a civil union not an official marriage. Love how they ignore the fact that those aren’t universally legal yet.” He said snarkily.

I shook my head. People could be such pricks when it came the allowing homosexuals the same rights that the constitution guaranteed every US citizen. “So find one yourself…like you did Shelby. Just, this time, make sure you do the full screening or you know try for a biracial child.”

Antwan smiled. “That’s the plan B. We are set up to interview a prospective agency in Columbus next month. So we will see how that goes first. Maybe the problems we’re seeing are just standard procedure, not anti-gay…but you know how it can be.”

I nodded. “Much like racism, you see enough of it aimed your way, you start anticipating it and ascribing it to people who are just doing what they were trained to do.” I agreed.

Antwan gave me a wry grin. “Yup and lucky me…I get hit by both. We weren’t exactly searching for Shelby. She was a friend of a friend and she had all the traits we wanted in a child.”

“Meaning she could sing her ass off.” I prodded teasingly.

“Exactly. We know the important things in life.” Our laughter drew the attention of everyone at the table. Rather than explaining what made us laugh, by unspoken agreement Twan and I looked around and in once voice shouted out the line Mercedes’ character had shouted as she’d been forcing her way through the crowded backstage area into the even more crowded club after fighting with her mother… “What? Ain’t nobody asked y’all to mind my business.” The laughter that followed had many in the restaurant giving us all the side eye, but it was Christmas time; we were surrounded by family and friends with more family heading our way. What more could we ask for?

 

All I Want For Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey)  
Sam PoV

I was scared shitless. It was Christmas Eve and if things start going any more spectacular in our lives I was gonna start looking around for the trials and tribulations of Job. Though we could never actually marry in the United States, me, Mercy and Puck had totally, officially, put rings on it. The SongBird soundtrack was designated as multi-platinum, having sold over two point four million in store units. Our single from the SongBird soundtrack was certified gold just off the digital sales, and Mercy and Jill’s duet was certified platinum, but unlike the others, that one wasn’t even including the digital units which were still being calculated. Then there were the numbers on Mercedes solo tracks and the other ‘mother/daughter’ duets, those were almost freaky in their popularity since they weren’t receiving radio play or even had videos or anything. But even before that, we’d woken up Monday to find out that SongBird’s opening weekend domestic take was over fifty million dollars, which was about twice the production cost so Warner Studios were hella happy. That was pretty near a record for a movie like it and Hollywood seemed to be scrambling to find more diverse casts. There were even moving forward with a MLK bio-pic that had been in the filming stages but was now going to have a hell of a lot more backing. While that was totally awesome news, it had led to Mrs. Gwen and Mr. Antwan forcing us to meet with them the day before.

“Good morning guys, sorry to drag you in so early.” Antwan Berry started quietly. “First of all, I know that you don’t hold my daughter’s actions against me, but I feel it only fair to offer to step down from representing you any further.”

“Oh hell to the no.” Mercy told him with a wicked smile that may have made my dick get harder in my pants. “You’re ours now. We’re gonna take down Faux News and make Rush Limbaugh our bitch. Rachel is not gonna ruin that for us or for you.”

Mr. Antwan smiled; he turned to Mrs. Gwen and whispered, “That right there is why she is my favorite one of Rachel’s former friends.”

Mercedes looked like she wanted to say something else, but when Puck’s head hit the table he’d been leaning on, we all decided to wake him up and get on with it. After all we were meeting in the conference room at Mr. Antwan’s small law firm at the butt crack of dawn so that he and Mrs. Gwen could meet with us before they headed to their real jobs. And Moma Dani did say we could go back to bed when we got home if we got into our room before the twins saw us. Those two were really kind of clingy and way stronger than they should have been. Once they got a hold of you…you weren’t going anywhere until they got bored enough to release you from their cute little clutches. Problem with that was that by the time they released you, you just wanted more snuggles. It was a vicious cycle.

“Okay, according to the numbers we’ve received from Warner…which yes, Puck, we checked against the reported numbers from the sites…you guys are looking at quite a substantial return on your investment.” Mrs. Gwen said with a smile.

“What investment?” I asked raising an eyebrow. I didn’t think we’d made any investments in anything yet.

“I’m talking about the investment of your time and energy and talent, and the not inconsiderable amounts that you’ve spent on studio time, lodging and travel.” Mr. Antwan explained nicely. I used to think he thought I was dumber than a sack of rocks, but then I heard how he talked to Finn. Finn, he talks to like you might talk to a really small child or dumb pet. So I realized that Mr. Antwan just kind of thinks all laymen need help understanding him, which is kind of true. My grandpa would have said that he used a lot of twenty dollar words.

I nodded and Mrs. Gwen continued. “So since you are going to be receiving some very significant residuals in a few weeks we wanted to talk to you about how to create lifelong wealth from your earnings.” She waited for a second as we considered the fact that they seemed to want us to make even more money…whoa. “Now the first suggestion that your mothers had was to buy some real estate while the market is still rebounding from the crash a few years ago. That is really not a bad idea, especially since the market is starting to show some real, sustainable growth.”

“Originally Danica had the thought that since Rebecah would soon be moving in with George full time, you three could buy Noah’s childhood home. That suggestion is still on the table for Noah. It would allow you to take advantage of the first time home owner’s tax credit which would help to decrease your tax burden for the first quarter of the new year. However since there are three of you, and you are not able to marry in the legal sense, you would each be able to buy a property and take advantage of that break. Gabby raised the suggestion that perhaps you should look into buying condos in cities where you will spend a lot of time doing your work…Chicago and Los Angeles were cities she listed as possibilities. You could also take advantage of the development you currently live in and build there which would allow you to have tenants in the four units for future revenue as well as giving you a later break during the second or third quarter when the house closes.”

Noah looked around thoughtfully. “I know we can only get the tax credit once, but is there anything to stop us from getting the house here, in LA and Chicago as well as each creating further revenue streams for us and for Mills by building the income properties in the development?”

“You three want to become real estate moguls?” Mrs. Gwen teased.

I shrugged. “It wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

Mercy agreed. “Plus, Mills and Francine have their property management certification on top of their realtor licenses. They could increase their profits and expand their business across the board.”

Mr. Antwan was making notes. “I don’t see anything wrong with that idea. There are lesser tax credits every time you make a real estate purchase.” He smiled, “anyone else you want to increase their businesses by hiring on?”

“Huh?” we asked in one confused voice.

“Well, Amicitiae Amore overall has been wonderful for both me and Gwen when it comes to our bottom lines, when you add in the billable hours for your individual accounting and legal needs…you are greatly increasing our businesses. I know that Gwen is turning your portfolio management over to Noah’s Uncle Saul, which will increase his client worth by over twenty five percent which will certainly increase his standing at his office. Now this will increase Mills and Francine’s business exponentially. It’s possible they will need to hire someone…probably a real estate lawyer.”

“Whoa.” We breathed, again all at once. After that, we spent the rest of the hour working out tentative plans that Mrs. Gwen would take to Uncle Saulie to start to establish our portfolio. We all agreed that we wanted to buy shares of Apple, Sprawl-Mart, Warner Brothers Entertainment Group and Microsoft. We also agreed to make sure that Mills and Francine would be cool with us forcing a pretty major expansion of their business. Before we left as we started packing up our notes, okay as Mercy was putting away the iPad she’d taken notes on, Puck looked around and pouted. “So what I’m hearing is that we aren’t going to be allowed to get like five hundred grand in small bills to roll around and bone in, then?”

I think we laughed all the way home at the looks on their faces. Mr. Antwan looked like he completely understood and would help us make it happen if we really wanted to, but Mrs. Gwen looked so shocked, scandalized and appalled that it was completely hilarious. She hurried out after that. So we headed home. We stopped by Whole Foods and bought three of their premade bake and eat breakfast casseroles to throw in the oven when we got back to the house. Benton and Moma Dani were only working a half day and the house would be in a frenzy of cooking once she got home. Thankfully since we were still at school we’d missed the cleaning frenzy that took over all three of the family houses. We’d missed a lot. I don’t know what we were more shocked to see Hannah coming for a visit and being nice and apologetic and, oh yeah, pregnant or Jake living with all of us because his mom is even worse than I thought…and I thought she was pretty damn bad, so that is saying something. But the three of us were nothing if not flexible. Though to be honest we were hella happy about the whole Jake thing…sad for him but happy overall. We were still waiting for normal Hannah to pop up and be all like ‘you really thought I was gonna change when I’ve been such a bitch my whole, entire, life’.

With all that was discussed at the meeting, we weren’t exactly sleepy anymore by the time we got home. So as we made breakfast, we talked about our feelings on all of it. “Is it wrong that I don’t really want to buy Mom’s house?” Puck asked after a few minutes.

“Why don’t you?” Mercedes asked him. “You’ve always said that you were going to pay off the mortgage as soon as you possibly could.”

Puck shrugged. “And I’m still gonna…I never wanted to live there full time again though. Not all the memories there were great, ya know.”

I nodded. “So what do you want to do with it if you’re gonna pay off the mortgage anyway?”

“I don’t know. Give it Sarah…I mean Jake needs a place to live. He can live there as long as he likes. I mean, he’s already there every day during pool season to get supplies for pool cleaning anyway. Besides, Mom’s room was the biggest, but it isn’t big enough for a king sized bed, and her closet wouldn’t hold a third of the shoes Cede has let alone any that she might want to buy.”

Mercy looked thoughtful. “We could always buy something, either just straight land and pay George to build a house to suit what we want, or we could buy something and completely renovate it. Puck could just pay his mom’s mortgage anyway without transferring it out of her name until he knows whether he wants to give it Sarah or whatever.”

I was getting weirdly excited about doing that. “Guess we might as well build George’s business too, ya know, make sure that he can take care of Mama Becah the way he should.”

“Okay…so we can do that. That will take care of Puck’s new home tax credit. Since I’m getting more of the soundtrack residuals since I’m on more songs, I’ll take LA. I’m sure home costs are higher out there. I wonder if we can talk to the parents about doing the other apartments in Manhattan as a separate business under the Amicitiae Amore umbrella corporation. Maybe use the corporation to funnel more money back into the parents’ hands since they went into some pretty deep debt to help us.”

I checked the timer, “these still have half an hour. Want to grab our tablets and start looking around and see if there is anything that interests us any of those places. Or at least try to figure out what we want versus what we can afford?”

Puck grabbed some notepads and pens too, and we reassembled at the kitchen table after peeping in on the twins. Apparently having the house full of people giving them massive amounts of attention had thrown off their schedule, because even though Moma Dani and Momma said that they were usually up by eight they were still knocked out at ten of nine. We’d each taken a pad and were jotting down what we needed and wanted in a place. Like in Chicago, we wanted somewhere really cool, not a family building, but no place where it’s all singles either. In LA we knew that we couldn’t afford a place on the beach yet, so we concentrated on what we wanted in the actual condo rather than location. As long as it was a nice neighborhood we didn’t care where it actually was.

Momma came up carrying Sloane and sat with us. We brought her up to speed quickly. “You know, once you get it cemented what features you need, what features you want, and what features you don’t care about, maybe you can get Mills friend out there to help you. She could at least get everything narrowed down.”

“Oh yeah…I hadn’t thought about that.” Mercy nodded and made a note. “I’ve still got her email address. I’ll check with Mills though when they get here to see if she thinks we should wait or start looking now.”

Momma nodded and congratulated us on thinking ahead and planning wisely. “Now, tell me the truth, what fun things are you getting for yourselves?”

I blushed hot like fire. I haven’t even told Mercedes and Noah what I wanted to do with my ‘Yeah Us’ money, as I called it in my head. Mercedes looked around and noticed that Puck was looking a little sheepish about sharing too. “I don’t really mind sharing mine. We budgeted five thousand each to spend on ourselves, so I’m going to put five thousand down on a living room grand piano. The keyboard is okay for song writing, but I really want to get a real piano.”

“Wait; hold up…you can get the piano, hell buy it outright. But that cannot be your gift to yourself…it’s a business expense.” Puck said sternly. “I’m planning on getting a collectible guitar…not something I can play, something that is signed and will build value, yeah, but not anything that makes sense for real.” He tried to explain.

“I agree with Puck. You’ve gotta go back to the drawing board Miss Missy. That is not an acceptable reward for a job well done.” I cosigned. “You should get something you want just because, not something for work. That’s like if Dad’s boss was really happy with some building he drew and so he just gave him another building to draw.” I tried to get our point across.

Mercedes rolled her eyes. “But I don’t have anything like you guys. I already buy the clothes I like when I can. I already buy the shoes I like when I can.”

“Well, Puck’s getting a collectible guitar, I’m gonna get a rare, collectible comic book. I bet you could get a signed, first edition Harry Potter book or two even.” I suggested.

“That’s perfect…you love those books and they are totally gonna be collector’s items one day.” Noah agreed. “Oh or you could get a first edition Lord of The Rings or something…but we want you to get something that you will love that is just for you.”

“I’ll look into it.” Mercy finally agreed.

The oven timer went off at the same time as we could hear Mara and Maea waking up on the baby monitor. Momma and I took Sloane and went to get the twins while Puck and Mercy pulled breakfast from the oven. Soon the kitchen was filled, Saul, Mills, Bubbie Ruth and Hannah came in together, followed by George, Tessa, Jake and Sarah. Stevie and Stacey came down with us as we brought the freshly changed babies downstairs to be with the family. Dad, Moma Dani, Moma Becah and Benton were all working, so we sat around and chatted and ate and fed the munchkins. Once breakfast was consumed, we dispersed around the house and the world…Mills, Hannah, Bubbie Ruth and Tessa went shopping for last minute gifts and took the grocery list off the fridge. With everyone home, we ran through the staples, milk, bottled water, fruit, bread and cereal, like water. 

Puck and I pulled Saul and George into the family room where the twins were playing while Sloane got in some Tummy Time and asked them about the change in the plans for the Lima house situation. George looked thoughtful. “If you guys get me a set of plans me and my crew can build any house you want. But we’re not a big firm, so it will take longer than the house in Harlem.”

“That’s fine, we’re in New York during the school year. They have us doing a press junket during spring break for the record release and then we’re touring most of the summer, just with time off for the weddings.” Noah told the two older men.

“Antwan emailed me a list of the stocks the three of you want to start off with. Even with a cash buy in of a hundred thousand each…that will still leave you enough to get financing for the three properties and at least one lot in the Harlem development.” Saul said thoughtfully.

“We were thinking of no more than five hundred thousand on each of the three properties.” I said cautiously.

George chuckled. “Half a million is going to get you a hell of a lot of house here in Lima. Probably only gets you nice condos in LA and Chicago though.”

“That’s what we figured.” Puck agreed. “Look, I’m gonna be real, to me one point five million is a really scary prospect, so while I’m willing to rearrange within that budget, there ain’t no way are we going over it.”

We turned our attention to other topics and before we realized it, it was time to take care of the trio of munchkins. The rest of the first week of our vacation flew by. After lunch, Dev, Kev, Tonya and Tricia arrived. Benton’s cousin Franklin arrived late Monday evening, Tuesday was a blur of catching up and listening to Mercedes, Tessa, Mills, Franklin and surprisingly enough Hannah debating politics while the ladies were all in and out of the kitchens cooking. Christmas morning was amazing. Everyone cleaned up. For the most part we all got stuff we either needed or really, really wanted.

Like Devon and Tonya, they had pretty much furnished their whole apartment on the stuff they got for their wedding and undergrad graduation gifts so all they asked for was box sets of their favorite show and movies. They ended up getting all seven seasons of both Star Trek: the Next Generation and Buffy the Vampire Slayer along with all five seasons of Angel. Bubbie gave them the Essential Hitchcock collection, she swore it was her place as a grandmother to educate her grandbabies, and Hitchcock was tantamount to educational materials for film lovers. Saul and Mills said they looked at all the box sets and couldn’t figure out which one they’d want but not already have, so instead they got them really nice watches. For Tonya they got the Watch Hunger Stop runway rose gold-tone watch while Devon got the matching masculine version. “The best thing about those watches is that for every watch purchased they give money to homeless and hungry around the world.” That was really awesome. Kevon and Patrice went with a need based gift, they had seen that Tonya’s messenger bag was dying a slow, brutal death and got her a new one, and Kevon and Devon had gotten each other one of those cool FitBit wrist exercise monitor things. Tonya got Patrice a red carrying case for her laptop, which just showed that they had been friends so long their minds worked on the same wavelengths. We’d gotten Tonya and Devon a Keurig coffee system. They’d had a nifty coffee maker that saw them through the four years of college but it had died not long before thanksgiving…and since we all loved our machine, Mercy had gotten them one just like it. Jake had had a hard time giving them his gift. Not because he’d not known what to get them, he’d gotten them a Jurassic Park movie box set…but it had been the last one at Best Buy and he almost wanted to keep it for himself. Tessa had had no problem giving them the eight piece Marvel character drinking glass set she had found for them. Triple S pooled their money and gave everyone joint gifts. Which was awesome because instead of three small gifts we each got one good gift, like Devon and Tonya got these awesome Avengers temp change coffee mugs that I so coveted.

Kevon and Patrice did just as well. They got matching uber desktop computer packages complete with new printers and everything. It was a cool gift since it meant that they could work on their stuff at home without having to hunch over a laptop. Bent and Moma Dani said that having the desktops would help their laptops have a longer life. Momma and Dad got them a set of plates and stuff. Apparently they had been living off paper plates for like ever. Unlike Devon and Tonya, who were determined to avoid buying a house for as long as they could, Kev and Trice said that they were saving up to buy one as soon as Kev finished his Masters and Trice finished her JD. So George and Moma Becah had gotten them a really cool set of tools. Kev and Tricie were hopeful that they could end up either in Chicago or DC once they finished their degrees, but Chicago was their first choice. With that in mind, Saul and Mills had gotten Kev Season Tickets for the Bears, and gotten Trice a super expensive, but hella classy Calvin Klein purse/briefcase looking thing. Bubbie Ruth and Mills must have gone shopping together because she got Trice a Coach handbag and Kev a really classic looking Coach wallet and belt. Then, we illustrated that Mercedes makes all our shopping and gift decisions, because we gave them a set of stemware and barware just in case they house they finally decide on ahs a bar area, I guess. I started to see a theme in Jake’s gifts. Kev and Trice got a box set for ‘Penny Dreadful’, which worked, Jake and Trice were both addicted to it. It was how they had bonded. Tessa and Mom thought a lot alike. While Mom had gotten them super nice, borderline special occasion dishes, the set from Tessa seemed to be more of the everyday variety. Triple S gave the rest of us various gift cards, except Tessa who got a case for the MacBook Air her dad and Moma Becah gave her.

Mercy, Puck and I got stuff we didn’t even know we wanted, but we geeked/freaked out from getting all the same. Benton and Momma Dani got Mercy a pretty Burberry watch and got me and Puck the FitBit wrist things like Dev and Kev had gotten each other. Somewhere must have had a sale on the Beats by Dre headphones, because Momma and Dad got them for all three of us and earbuds for Jake, I mean they were all different colors and everything. Then George and Becah did the opposite, we got earbuds from them, but they got Jake a cool MP3 player. We got expensive, uber-watches from Saul and Mills and they got Mercy a purse she’d been drooling over for months. Bubbie got us all wallets, one that matched the purse Saul and Mills gave her for Mercy and grown up, real leather ones for me and Noah. Kev and Patrice gave us hundred dollar gift cards to Macy’s for mercy, Game Stop for Noah and Best Buy for me. Then Dev and Tonya gave Puck and Mercedes the same exact thing, but they gave me an awesome set of Fantastic Four coffee mugs…I kind of felt bad for wanting to steal their Avenger set earlier. Jake hit us each with a different season of Big Bang Theory on DVD, which was awesome…Puck and I loved watching Mercedes come up with more and more inventive ways to off Sheldon Cooper. I think Tessa cheaped out on us so that she could give Jake a Kindle, but I wasn’t really complaining. He needed that more than we needed anything plus too, I got an awesome RC Ferrari and Puck said I could play with his helicopter…and Mercedes got the only kind of puppy we could really have at the time, a Zoomer one. We all welled up in tears when we opened the cards the Felicia and her husband Vinnie had sent us. We got hundred and fifty dollar gift cards, Hips and Curves again for Mercedes and Pure Romance for me and Puck, but even better than that, we got a family picture of them and their twins Angelica Mercedes and Samuel Noah McBride. That was the best gift of the entire day.

Hannah had gotten everyone gift cards and that’s what we all got her. The same went for Franklin. We just hadn’t been expecting them, so we didn’t get them anything when we were all doing our shopping. I did have to say lobbying must be really lucrative, Franklin gave everyone over thirty a hundred and fifty bucks. Everyone between eighteen and twenty-nine got a hundred and the kids each got fifty bucks. Jake, Tessa and Triple S all got tons of stuff too, though the parents did keep to the same rule as last year, one big gift for each person and then they couldn’t go any higher with the little gifts than what was spent on the big one. Though Bubbie Ruth and Uncle Saul both opted out of the rule. Apparently gift giving rules do not apply to grandparents or cool aunts and uncles. Because of their feelings on the whole ‘rules’ thing, it was very ill advised to toss out their gifts’ packaging without checking it thoroughly. They may have just gotten one big gift for each of us, but they slipped us cash inside them too. And their big gifts were like the most perfect things ever. Like Bubbie got Jake an uber-watch too and Saul and Mills got him some Gucci cologne. He looked at them and I swear he almost cried. We got him and Tessa the same thing, a really expensive body massager thing that was worth its weight in gold. We’d picked it for them because we were in the process of researching something to help Mercy get through their PE class the following semester. We figured that with football and basketball and dancing for Jake and cheerleading, dancing and getting back into gymnastics teaching the Junior Cheerios they could definitely use the stress relief and muscle relaxing. Okay so we did much better with Triple S. Sarah got three hundred bucks to go shopping with…and Mercy’s promise that they would hit some boss after Christmas sales. Stevie got a whole bunch of games for his DS and his Xbox and a really cool camo controller. Stacey got the black version of that year’s Holiday Barbie, Mom and Dad had gotten her the traditional blonde, and Mercedes went nuts at the American Doll store, so Stacey was the proud new owner of a doll that bore a really creepy resemblance to her. I lost track of all the stuff the babies got, but it was a huge amount of crap. I know because I got drafted to help carry it up to the twins’ room.

But the best part of Christmas was definitely the food…no, I mean really it was the company. Quinn and her contingent went down and had Christmas dinner with James family. But we still had Coach Sylvester and her baby, Jean. Jean Sylvester the Second had Down Syndrome just like her name sake, but she was the sweetest baby ever. Like she made Sloane seem like a mean little old man in comparison and nothing bothered that kid. Don’t get me wrong, Coach Sylvester was the same as she always was, but Jean made up for it. Plus, no one should ever have to be alone on Christmas. Patrice’s family came for dinner, though Tonya’s didn’t…they were at her grandmother’s. It was really weird to see Kev and Patrice without seeing Dev and Tonya though. The already married couple had left right after breakfast to go to Gammy Jean’s home in Cleveland.

Tessa was ecstatic because Aidan and his family joined us. No one would ever give us the story on why they decided not to come over on Thanksgiving. But given the way Tessa’s whole head turned red whenever Puck asked, we kind of decided that we didn’t really want to know. Seemed like no time had passed at all and we were all gathering at Wingate hotel. The parents rented out the hotel’s biggest meeting room like they had for our post graduation dinner. But rather than getting it catered, everyone brought with them all the leftovers they still had or they brought their favorite takeout if they hadn’t been at their own home for Christmas. With help from Shelby, we got all the new New Directions to come too. Momma and Moma Dani brought these baby gate things that could go together to form a fence and gave the babies a huge play area, and she set up a play yard to hold Sloane and Jean so that Beth, Maea, Mara and Robyn could play without hurting the two who weren’t crawling and toddling about yet.

A lot of the girls were dressed really nicely. None of them looked as good as Mercedes of course. She was looking both festive and gorgeous in Christmas red fake wrappy deally dresses that was shorter in the front than in the back and had a really deep cleavage. It wasn’t deep enough to be wrong around parents and kids, but it was deep enough to have me and Puck drooling all night. Her shoes were sexy too. From the front and the back they looked like regular black pointed toe pumps with a strap around Mercy’s ankle, but from the side you could tell they were actually wedges. She said they helped her feet stay comfortable longer but still gave her the height boost she wanted to have. Tina looked nice, but naughty in some really tall burgundy and black boots with a top that was both colors and sheer sleeves and a black leather tennis or school girl kind of skirt. Unlike Puck and I, who drifted over to play with the babies whenever we came too close to forgetting where we were and making love to our woman no matter who was there, Mike didn’t leave her side all night, at least not until the music started.

The party was a trip and half. At one point Mike, Jake, Brits and Jessica all got into an epic dance off. That just started the ball rolling. Next thing anyone knew Santana was dragging Mercy and Tina up to the huge karaoke station that Benton had rented for the night. First Tana demanded that she and Mercedes redo their signature piece ‘River Deep Mountain High’ then she dragged Tina in to be Michelle for their rendition of ‘Bootylicious’. Not to be outdone, Kurt raced up before Tina could sit down, dragging Brittany in his wake and the three of them did an amazingly well done ‘Single Ladies’. Then all of the post-graduation New Directions took the “stage” and we hammed it up to ‘Born This Way’. When we sat our laughing asses down, Jake and Steven commandeered Adams and the three of them along with most of the younger NDs did a righteous job on ‘No Diggity’. But that inspired Benton, his cousin Franklin and Adams’ dad to get up there and show us all that even with no rehearsal, some things never really leave you. They hit all the old club dances while singing Montell Jordan’s ‘This is How We Do It’. Momma Dani, RJC’s mothers, along with Adams’ mom weren’t going to let the dads show them up, so they did a whole routine to Envogue’s ‘Giving Him Something He Can Feel’, which inspired Momma, Becs, and Bubbie Ruth to transform themselves into Madonna for a one night only performance of ‘Express Yourself’…which sound way much like ‘Born This Way’…I wondered for a second if Lady Gaga had known that.

After that party it was like the rest of the break was consumed with planning for the videos and shooting the videos. Only after they were in the can were we able to relax a little but that was less than a week before classes started back. Going back to campus with everyone knowing who we were was hard. By the end of the third week they had to call a freshman class meeting where they laid out the guidelines for appropriate in class behavior. People were constantly trying to take video and pictures of us in class and everything. I don’t know why, TMZ wasn’t gonna pay much for me staring at my Comparative Ethnic Studies professor trying to figure out if her hair was a Shatner like toupee or just a Trump like comb over. Granted we soon had enough shots of Puck flicking some wannabe paparazzi off while taking notes with his other hand to make an eighties inspire rock ‘n roll montage.

Our Juilliard classmates were better about not doing dumbass stuff in our classes, but only because everyone and there mother was trying to give us their demo to give to Lyor. Mercedes just looked at people like she was seriously gonna take them to the carpet and not get a hair out of place while doing so. I took them and dutifully passed them on to Deborah who called me a sweetie and then probably binned them as soon as my back was turned. When we weren’t in classes or doing homework or working on school projects, we were working with Kurt, Anika and Christophe in getting ready for our record release party in March. Or we were meeting with Mills and Francesca and Madeline St. Clair and selecting properties once Warner gave us our first residuals, a big ass check for each of us, though really the money was transferred where we had designated in all our paperwork the summer before, which frankly blew my mind more than a little bit.

We worked with Ms. St. Clair in LA, and Sebastian Falcone, another friend of Mills, in Chicago and of course George and Dad in Lima, so it took us a lot less time than we thought it would to get everything together when it came to the properties. In the end we were able to get our Chicago condo for three hundred and fifteen thousand, our LA condo for six hundred and twenty one thousand, both of which were under asking price. We got the property in Lima, a little over an acre and a half for right at sixty thousand, which was also under asking price. We just paid that right out, they gave us nine grand off since it was a cash purchase. Once we were happy with those we asked Madeline if she could look into properties in close proximity to both Berkeley and Stanford. We laid out what we needed; three bedroom, two bath, open concept with a bonus room that could be a study or home office. Tina had told Mercedes and Mike had told me about their hope to live off campus with each other and DJ and Nevel after they completed their freshman year. Tina even told us that she would have to show a seventy five percent savings over her campus board fees, which meant that she couldn’t spend more than five or six hundred on rent. Eventually Madeline found a duplex that was half an hour drive from each campus, with traffic. Each side filled the bed and bath requirements. It was a foreclosure but it had only been on the market for two weeks. She send us a tone of pictures and videos so we could look it over. Ultimately we decided that we liked and thought would be a perfect place for them. And with the asking price being under two hundred grand and it only needing about forty to fifty thousand in repairs, we knew that we could rent it to the fully furnished for five hundred each roommate, and not only make the mortgage with no problem, but with the other side being rented for the same amount we would also make us quite a bit of a profit. It was great we would be making a lot of money just by helping our friends and yet we would never feel as if we were taking advantage of Tee or Mike. We were doing well, but after being truly poor…the extra money certainly couldn’t hurt.

When Artie’s mom heard about that, Mrs. Gwen came up with the great idea to start a small real estate development company under the Amicitiae Amore umbrella that we could consolidate all our rental properties and keep them separate from the homes that we were buying in each of our names. Amor Verissima Development would be jointly owned by the three of us and eventually we could even have a staff to manage the rentals that weren’t in New York or LA. The name translated to exactly what we’d found in each other the truest love. Our lives felt like they were spiraling away from us and yet in complete and total balance all at the same time it was really weird and yet awesomely epic at the same time. I could hardly believe that just two years before my entire family had been living in a horrible, hole in the wall, motel room…but that January I gave a hundred thousand of my third of our earnings to the efforts to build a homeless shelter in Lima. I was on one hell of a trip, but I wouldn’t have changed a single minute of it thus far.


	8. This Christmas (Chris Brown)/ I Wish It Could Be Christmas Today (Julian Casablancas)

This Christmas (Chris Brown)  
Jake Point of View

There were millions of women in this world that should never, ever have had children. I couldn’t understand how I reached the exalted age of fifteen before I realized that my own mother was one of those women. Probably that was hyperbole and I was totally overstating things, but at the time, that was exactly how I felt. The truth was that things with my mother had been going downhill fast since the first time she dragged me to see the sperm donor. And after the second, she tricked me and then got pissed when I wouldn’t get out of the car when we got there, there were bobsled teams that we were bypassing as we raced towards total familial dysfunction. Thinking back I realized that from the very first disastrous jail visit, things had gotten very tense around the house. Suddenly I’d gone from having little to no real rules and basically being able to do no wrong, to having rules out the ass and never being able to do anything right. She set the schedule but I didn’t work enough hours at the diner this week…then the next week I worked the same number of hours and somehow I had worked too many.

My friends weren’t right or good enough either all of a sudden. She had liked Kitty, who was a world class bitch, and not in a good or funny way like Lopez, but Mom couldn’t stand Marley, who was one of the sweetest people I’d ever met and who made me want to be a better man and all around good person. Then there was Mom’s reaction to Unique, she hated her. Which made less than no sense since Mom was definitely not homophobic or transphobic. I mean, Uncle D’Metrious was gayer than anyone I knew, except Hummel…no one was gayer than Kurt, not even Unique…and Unc had spent a year working as a Tina Turner impersonator in Vegas. Granted I still think of Uncle D’Metrious as D’Metrious not Tina or whatever and Unique is totally Unique to me and only Wade when she is pissing me off, but still I think that the comparison is valid. Unique thought Mom hated her and Marley because they worked hard to keep me from backsliding into my former man-whore-in-training ways. But Mom liked Ryder so I wasn’t sure how accurate Unique’s assessment was, since he was almost as much of a nag as Marles and Uni…then again, Ryder was a lot easier for me to drag off the straight and narrow. So maybe.

Things got really bad after Thanksgiving. Mom and I spent the holiday itself with the family in Birmingham. My Grandma is pretty cool. Malika Michaels had given the world all five of her kids; Uncle D’Metrious, Uncle Orion, Mom, Aunt Catrina and Aunt Debra. Grandma did it all by herself after Granddaddy took off. They all graduated high school. They all went to college…four out of five even graduated. At forty-two, Uncle D’Metrious was the oldest and at barely thirty, Aunt Debra was the youngest. Uncle Orion was thirty eight, a former Army Ranger who may or may not have worked with Seal Team Six a time or two. Aunt Catrina, at thirty three, was a nice, safe, boring human resources executive with Boeing, and Aunt Debra was a physical therapist. Only Aunt Debra had ever gotten married…Jamequez was alright. He didn’t want to be called Uncle and he was a pretty good dad to my little cousins, five year old Marie and two year old Neville… Jamequez hated his name… so I could deal with him. But he and Mom were never in the same room together because the rest of us wanted to avoid the migraine inducing arguments they always got into. Uncle D’Metrious had one kid. He’d had sex with a woman exactly one time when he was sixteen and ‘trying to be straight because I thought it would KILL Momma if I wasn’t’. My cousin Dereck was twenty-six years old, only ten years younger than my mom, and he was already working his way up through the ranks in the Memphis city management office.

Dinner was pretty awesome, Grandma and Mom handled the cooking but there was some serious tension in that kitchen that year so I stayed out. There was really only so much tension before people could handle before someone blew up. I didn’t want to be around when Grandma finally went off on Mom…Grandma rarely cussed in front of the grand kids, and I didn’t want her to have to hold back. I told my uncles and aunts all about everything that was going on in my life. About Puck and his crew and Mercedes. I played them all the SongBird soundtrack and strongly encouraged…okay pestered them until they actually did…them to buy the whole thing on iTunes or Pandora or Rhapsody or Spotify. Dereck already had it. He had heard ‘Who You Are’ on the radio and fell in love. He was a big help in forcing the others to make the purchases too. Everyone was kind of shocked that I actually got along so well with my half siblings and their families. But once I told them the story of the diner meeting they seemed to understand that the Puckerman-Altmans, the Joneses and the Evanses were just pretty much good peoples. 

Since Black Friday was a huge day at the diner, me and Mom flew to Birmingham on Wednesday and flew home Thursday night. Things were still tense that night but they got even worse by the end of the weekend. Me hanging with Puck and his crew when I wasn’t at work seemed to piss Mom all the way off despite the fact that she had been telling me that she wanted me to have a good relationship with my siblings for as long as I could remember. I think what really annoyed her was that, after the trickery visit, I wouldn’t make a return trip with her to visit the asshole know as Paul Puckerman. Instead I spent all of my free time either with my friends or with Tessa, Sarah and the fam on that side. I chilled with them the whole weekend Little Sloane was born. I made my shifts at the diner but other than that the only time I was home was when I was asleep. Since school had let out for winter break at half day on Friday, I wasn’t even worried about it. Sunday after Commune went home, I finally made it home before I fell into bed.

I noticed that Mom wasn’t home, but I didn’t think anything of it. I was kind of used to her holiday MO. She had converted to Judaism before I was born, so we celebrated Chanukah. But Mom liked to have a big fish on the line around Christmas…someone who would give her something nice to open on Christmas morning. Grandma and her brothers and sisters all sent us stuff, but nothing like the diamond earrings Mom had gotten from the doctor she was dating two Christmases before. I assumed that she was on a date or something. At least I did until she came storming in around ten that night.

“Where were you? I told you that we were going to visit your father for Christmas.” She ranted.

“I was with Puck and Sarah at the Joneses.” I told her honestly. “Do not call Paul Puckerman my father. He isn’t my damn daddy, and why would it be important to go see the sperm donor for Christmas? He is Jewish…and I can’t stand his tired ass.”

“It is a holiday and most of the other men there had family come and visit them. Having family visit is an important thing at times like this.” She shot back.

I rolled my eyes. “He isn’t our family. Or did you miss the fact that he never married you, Hell, he never really acknowledged me. He is an asshole and a thief and a bum and a bastard. Why the hell would you want him to be your family?”

“He is your father.” She said stridently.

“Wow…really.” The sarcasm was strong in those two words. “Okay. I will give you that he gave me half of my DNA, but who taught me to pee standing up…Uncle Orion. It was Uncle D’Metrious taught me how to ride a bike. Hell, when Bennie Reynolds was bullying me in the first grade it was that dude you were dating at the time, Steven, that taught me how to throw a punch and when to do it so that the teacher wouldn’t write me up. And two years ago it was Dr. Victor that taught my ass how to shave. The closest that jackass you seem so fucking determined to shove at me as ‘Daddy’ has come to teaching me anything important is to teach my ass exactly how not to act like a man. He is a punk bitch and you…I don’t even know what the hell you are that you will let him punk you out every time you turn around while you just lap that shit up and ask for more.”

The tension between us had officially reached the breaking point, passed it by and went straight up nuclear.

“You are not going to stand there and disrespect me.” She shouted, her face reddening in anger.

“Oh, I can’t disrespect you. I’d think you’d fully approve of me disrespecting you since you sure as hell didn’t mind when that asshat Pauley boy did it right in front of me…and all you did was giggle like that shit was cute.” I returned my voice quiet and yet more intense than ever. Her eyes got all tight. But before she could say a word I continued. “And don’t think I don’t know what you and Grandma argued about at Thanksgiving…she doesn’t think that you should be going to see Paul either. He is ain’t bout shit. You know it. But for some reason, you treat that fool like he was the damn messiah come to earth.”

“Paul loves me.” She denied.

“Please. The only person Paul loves is Paul’s self. If he had loved you, he wouldn’t have fucked you while he was married to Becah. He would have married you at some point in the last dozen years since he and Becah got divorced. Hell, you didn’t even know where he was for more years than I’ve been aware of the jackass’ name. you used to tell me all of those stories about my dad and when I realized that they weren’t true I thought that you were just trying to make me feel better about having been left in the dust by that piece of human waste…but no…you really are delusional enough about that prick to think he is even capable of actually being something resembling a good, decent human being.”

There are people who would say that I went too far and deserved what happened next. But I never saw the slap coming. “You are not going to disrespect me or your father in my house. Do you understand me young man? Now tomorrow, I’m going back to visit your father. You will either go with me, you will not be here when I get home.” She snarled before she marched her happy ass up to her room.

So I marched my happy ass up to my room and I packed every single thing I owned. I packed all my clothes, all my tech, all my books…though there are plenty of people who would be shocked by how many of them I owned…I carried it all down to the living room and slept on the couch. I was mostly pissed at first. I couldn’t fathom that my mother would really choose that prick of an asshole over me. But the next morning when she came down stairs and saw my stuff waiting, she just smirked at me and said, “I guess you’d better hope that Rebecah Puckerman is as wonderful as you think she is. Because I refuse to let you come crawling back here. Get your shit in the car. I’ll drop you off…but leave your key this is no longer your home.”

I was too fucked up to really talk. I really had thought that when she calmed down we could talk shit out and get past the bullshit. But if she wanted me gone, then gone I would be. She dropped me off at the Jones’ house because I wasn’t talking and couldn’t tell her how to get to George’s…I wish I could claim that I was seething in anger, but the truth was if I had opened my mouth all that would have come out was sobbing. I felt like the little black girl from The Cosby Show, Different World and Malcom & Eddie when she was on Lean on Me… “How come My Momma don’t want me no more” was running through my head over and over again. Thankfully Mrs. Dani was up and she took care of me until Becah got there. From then on out I had a place to live for real.

Becah and George gave Mom a week to come to her senses, when she didn’t they met with a lawyer they knew and started the paperwork to move me into their family permanently. I didn’t really want to be adopted so they just took guardianship of me and sent Mom the paperwork. She signed it and sent it back, and Attorney Berry filed it. I sent Grandma and the rest of the family emails letting them know where I was and my side of the story. I tried to keep it neutral, but I know as hurt as my feelings were I probably didn’t succeed very well. Becah made me give them her and George’s emails so they could contact them and everything. I was kind of surprised that they all came down on my side. But there were no words to express how relieved I was that I still had all of them even if I didn’t have Alicia any more.

Once I moved in with Rebecah, George, Tessa and Sarah, I assumed that I was no longer employed at the diner. So I had afternoons completely free. Tessa and Sarah were busy with Cheerio practices since their regionals were shortly after we got back from the break. So I went to the park and found pick-up basketball games. Through those I got to know Vince Howard better. I’d met him when hanging with the old guard NDs over Thanksgiving. No matter how much the Moms and the Dads all talked to me about what had happened, it was Vince that really helped me to see that Moma’s issues were hers and that I could love her despite them even though she pushed me away and clung to them. He also said that it was perfectly normal not to have any desire to have a relationship with a father who was never there. “Tryin’ to force one will only end up with you full on hating him rather than just the level of indifference tinged with severe dislike you have goin’ for him right now.” The tall, broad Texan had a good point so I stopped worrying about Paul Puckerman all together. Instead I concentrated on making a life with my family the way it now was.

Since the Altmans were catholic, mostly, they celebrated Christmas…granted it was at the Jones house. So we all opened our gifts over there and everyone had a gift for me even though when they had gone Christmas shopping there was no way they could have known I would be there…unless they were like Cedes’ older brothers who didn’t do any of their shopping until two days before Christmas. Luckily for them their wives had their backs. Watching all the college age people over the holiday made me realize that I should study hard but really enjoy high school because college was no damn joke. But all of Puck’s peeps had good grades and were happy with their lives, so I guess they made really good role models for the rest of us up and coming New Directions.

When school let back in we were five weeks out from show choir regionals and in hard core rehearsals. We did get a break from Saturday rehearsals that first week since the school was being rented out the next day to Warner Records for a video shoot…that all of us and Shelby, Coaches Bieste and Sylvester and Mr. Martinez were in anyway. It was awesome. They didn’t care that Unique was Unique rather than Wade, and they made Marley a cheerleader. We had a blast. Then we got to go to Club Excess for the club scene even though we were too young to go their regularly. It was really cool. And Puck, Sam and Cedes were totally awesome. I loved it for them, and for us. Their donation to the McKinley High New Directions, was enough to take care of all of the expenses for us to go Nationals in LA and really go all out for costumes and everything…that was really awesome.

Life was constantly changing around us, but I guess some good could come out of even the ones that seemed the worst. I had been shown the door by my mother, but found my way into a home where I had a mother figure who demanded that I try my best and who respected my feelings, a father figure who taught me tons of stuff about being a real man, a big brother I could go to with any problem that I might come up against and two sisters who meant the world to me. My grades were better than ever. Coach said that if I kept playing the way I was I would be a starter for basketball for both junior and senior years and would probably end up with a scholarship to college. My math teachers said that I was even better at the subject than my big brother and Mr. Martinez was pleased with my improvement after Christmas break. Life was different, but it sure as hell wasn’t worse.

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Today (Julian Casablancas)  
Tessa Point of View

Christmas break was ridiculously dramatic. Jake popped up on Dani and Benton’s door step the first morning of winter break with his whole world and ended up living with us…which was cool. I got to hang out with all my friends over the break, when I wasn’t at Cheerio practice. We got to go see Mercedes movie, which was really awesome and debuted as the number one movie in the country on its opening weekend…Noah and Sam were in it too, but not really…they were in a few crowd shots and club scenes. It was weird and awesome to see a movie with people I actually knew and was pretty much related to in it. I went with the whole family on Friday night and then on Saturday afternoon, I went with Aidan and Commune and as many of our friends as we could gather, which was actually a lot. That was even more surreal, the fact that I had that many people in my circle of friends. But still, I felt better for having done my part to get the numbers up on my sister-in-law’s big screen debut. Just like I was sure Coach Sylvester felt better by making it a requirement that every Cheerio who didn’t want to run an obscene number of laps better show up at practice that Monday with at least two ticket stubs. RJC each showed up with four. They had seen it with their parents, their dates, each other and with some of the JV squad girls who needed a ride. Regina was definitely bucking for captain our senior year. 

Saturday after the matinee, Aidan and I, thanks to his really awesome dad, had some real time alone, the first time since his mother had caught us before Halloween. As soon as we checked in, I dragged him into the bathroom and we stripped naked. In the warm shower, we reenacted our favorite fetish so far. Fuck, I loved it so much. It was kind of even better in the shower with the rain head beating down on us more directly. Then I blew Blaze until he was hard again and he fucked my ass hard and fast until our screams reverberated around the tile walls. After those delicious orgasms, we were both a whole lot calmer. When we made love in the hotel bed, Aidan teased me with his naughty words. “Flame, I want you to keep your eyes closed. But you are to imagine the room. Do you see it?”

I forced myself to focus on what he wanted me to do. I envisioned the room, its ugly curtains and bedspread, its big ass king sized bed, and small table with the comfortable looking chair beside it. I nodded, “yeah, Blaze, I see it.”

“Good, now who is your favorite one of RJC?” he whispered against the shell of my ear. “Or would you prefer it was a guy watching us, watching you be my sexy little toy?”

“I…I, I don’t…” I stammered. I couldn’t think when he did that and that question actually demanded a lot of thought. I wanted someone I was comfortable with, but not someone I had to look in the eye all the time. So, “Justin, Justin would work.” He was hot and he wasn’t in any of my classes or extracurricular other than glee, so it wouldn’t get too weird.

“Good girl,” he whispered, his voice dark and so damn sexy. “So imagine that Tuarini is over in that chair, sitting there watching as I touch you as I fill your tight, wet, hot little pussy up and empty you and fill you up over and over again until you’re screaming my name.” He taunted.

He entered me swiftly and my moan covered anything else he might have been about to say. My legs came up of their own volition to wrap around his hips as he drilled me deeply. A whine left me as he pulled all the way out only to flip me over as if I was weightless. He entered me again, this time doggy style and laughed as I grunted in surprise. “Gotta make sure Tuarini has a good show.” He teased.

I could see it. I could see Justin watching us, watching as Aidan drove himself into me over and over again as his long thick fingers started to play with my clit. I could see Justin watching us, licking his lips as he rubs himself through his pants. I could see it all and I could feel it all, Justin’s eyes burning into me as Blaze was pounding into me making me cum and scream and beg until he finally erupted all over my ass and back. He came way too much and too hard considering that he’d already cum twice that evening. He collapsed against me, his cock softening as it lay nestled in the crack of my ass. We stayed like that until our racing hearts calmed and our breathing returned to normal. We showered again, drank a boat load of water before falling asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows.

The next morning Blaze’s morning wood was pressing against my ass. I wiggled against it and smiled. It took everything within me not to wake him up and drag him into the bathroom. Instead, I slipped out of the bed took care of emptying my bladder, brushed my teeth and washed my face. When I exited the smaller room Aidan was waking up, his erection still tenting the covers despite the fact it was caused more by the need to pee than the desire to make love again. I climbed back into the bed and carefully uncovered Aidan’s cock. I could feel an impish grin cross my face as I took the standing head into my mouth, laving it with my tongue. By the time I got about four to four and a half inches down the tower of flesh, Aidan was awake and arching up into my face. “That’s a good fucking morning.” He grumbled. Only letting me suck him for a few strokes, his voice crashed over me. “Stop Flame, We’re not wasting this opportunity.” He said imperiously.

He lifted me off his dick and pulled me into his arms. In a show of strength that shouldn’t have been anywhere near as hot as it was, he picked me up and carried me into the bathroom. As the shower ran to heat up the tile, Aidan’s kisses and hands were driving me crazy. I was very soon so wet it would have been embarrassing if I weren’t so comfortable with him. We entered the shower and hesitated for a moment as we thought of how to make our fantasy come true. We decided that doggy would be best. Thankfully the shower floor was done in big twelve by twelve tiles so I was able to kneel fairly comfortably rather than having a million tile edges pressing into my knees and hands. Blaze slid his cock head against my pussy teasingly before entering me a lot more gently than he had any of the times the night before. “Ooohhhh,” I breathed. I was at least a little sore and the stretching feeling as he entered me burned so deliciously.

“God damn Flame Baby. You feel so fucking good.” He moaned. My hips rolled under his tight grip. “Fuck, you’re gonna make me cum before we even have our fun.” He taunted. We’d read up on things, if we wanted to do what we wanted to do, Aidan couldn’t let his morning wood turn into an actual erection. It was a simple matter of biology, when guys got to a certain level of hardness a valve closed off and jizz could come out but pee couldn’t. We had to work fast.

I shook my head, “you can’t cum until after I do…thems da rules.” I panted as he found his rhythm. Oh God it was a good rhythm. The water was warm as it cascaded over us making every move of his hands slick, but his fingers were still strong and just the pleasurable side of pain on my passion hardened nipples. Sooner than he probably was expecting, I squeeled as I was hit by wave after wave of intense pleasure.

“Shit, Flame.” He grunted and unleashed a torrent of hot, liquid inside me.

“FUCK!” I screamed. It was so hot and nasty. I couldn’t stop myself from cumming. I came so hard my hands slipped out from under me and I fell to the floor of the shower. Aidan pulled out and aimed his stream at my clit. Total black out level orgasmic event. I woke up quickly though when Blaze decided that it would be a good idea to blast me with cold water.

As I approached cognizance again I felt Aidan’s hands rubbing over my arms, trying to wake me up. “Tess, Tessa…ok you’ve gotta wake up Flame Baby…you’ve gotta wake up. I cannot call your father and tell him that I killed you with kinky sex. Please…he’ll kill me.”

“I’m fine…that was…that was just hella intense.” I moaned as a few slightly less intense aftershocks shook me.

Blaze carefully washed me, making sure to wash and condition my hair which had been on the floor of the shower during our play. It was a weirdly comforting thing to experience after such an intense bout of love making. I loved it. I felt cherished and loved and completely vulnerable in a way that, shockingly enough, didn’t even pull me up short, let alone scare me. It was a heady feeling. We wrapped up in towels and headed into the main hotel room. I had originally been under the impression that Mr. Harding had gotten us the hotel room for one night, but at check in we realized that we didn’t have to check out until Monday morning, so after I used my mouth and throat to repay the kindness Blaze had granted to me in the shower, we got dressed and headed out to have lunch at the Old Barn Out Back. After lunch, I helped Aidan with some last minute Christmas shopping. “I know that you really, really, really love me because you are in the mall three days before Christmas just to help me find me stupid little brother a decent gift.” He laughed as we entered yet another electronics store. Eventually I found him a cool thing they called a ‘Chaos Machine’ it didn’t really seem to do anything, but it looked wicked cool. After all that searching, Aidan just got him a video game.

When we made it back to the room, we didn’t bother coming back up for air until we checked out just in time for me to make it to Cheerio practice. Thankfully Sue only had us practice for a couple of hours that Monday and then not again until after the holiday. But since we went back to school four days before Regionals and still managed to crush it, securing our trip back to Nationals, so I guess she had a point. Christmas was awesome. I had racked up on clothes and shoes at Chanukah, then at Christmas, I did even better. Granted Christmas was followed by one of the biggest shopping days of the year…which meant that I got dragged to some after Christmas sales, because that’s apparently what my ‘sisters’ were all into. It was alright though. I found a few cute pieces. Saturday evening we had a New Directions and their families’ party, where we all got to eat, drink and make merry. Lauren and Finn seemed to make their way back towards each other…finally. Thank God, I was not mature enough to handle any of my OTPs from the original New Directions breaking up. Jake and Vince had a blast talking football with Karofsky, Adams and some of the dads. Mercedes was given mountains of adulation for her movie and her soundtrack. Her boys were either with her bathing in their own praise or across the room playing with the babies. Those two are already ready to be dads…you can see it in their eyes. They knew that they still had a couple of years to wait, though.

It was really weird to know that they were like ‘Major Recording Artists’ but they were. That became apparent when they spent the better part of a week filming their videos. I was decked out in a blue and white cheerleader outfit for the one filmed at the school and I got to be in the club scene for that one too. I skipped a day of classes so that I could be in the colorful ball shots for the other one too. The costumes for the second video were just ridiculously amazing. It was still really f-ing cool. Life was incredibly different from what I ever thought it was going to be when Dad started yammering about moving out of the city. I’m so glad that he ran into Bubbie Ruth. Lima had turned out to be exactly what we both needed to be truly happy.


End file.
